


With a Side of Sugar

by catwranglingandhugs



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Anxiety Attacks, Blow Jobs, Bromance, Comfort/Angst, Eventual Smut, F/F, Implied Relationships, Kissing, M/M, Masturbation, Minor Violence, POV Alternating, Slow Build, Tanaka for best wingman, Unresolved Sexual Tension, kenma w/ sensory issues, mega fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-04-19
Packaged: 2018-03-11 10:43:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 47,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3324578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catwranglingandhugs/pseuds/catwranglingandhugs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Koushi Sugawara is new to town and he's about to find out just how crazy the tight knit community he’s gotten himself into is between an ex-mobster boss, a series of lessons on how to not burn down your apartment, and developing a crush on the worst dancer he’s ever met- Daichi Sawamura.</p><p>Shenanigans involve, but are not limited to Bokuto and Kuroo mourning  deeply over a broken waffle-maker, Asahi making pillow forts with Noya at 2am, Hinata and Kenma teaching Kageyama how to not scare off children with his face, and Suga teaching Daichi firsthand how to tastefully grind at a club.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Of cardboard boxes and sweets

If there was one texture in the world that Sugawara mentally placed high upon his overall list of textures that made him cringe to no end, wet cardboard was _certainly_ a contester in the running. The slimy feeling pressed against his fingertips was disgusting (it was like touching one big snail-trail) as if the smell itself wasn’t fairly unpleasant enough. The more he had to handle his now soaked cardboard boxes of belongings, the more his mental list seemed to force itself to the front of his brain in a weird inescapable fashion, something like if he had been walking along and a piece of paper slapped itself _right_ onto his face in the perfect sort of collision. Luckily (as well as unfortunately) he hadn't exactly owned a whole lot of things in the first place to be bringing over from his old apartment so he wasn't as troubled as he could have been during the whole moving process due to a smaller amount of wet boxes to handle, though…

Tanaka and Nishinoya were _definitely_ supposed to be here and now, assisting him in unpacking his things. The dates for all of the moving and unpacking he had planned to do had most certainly been set in stone prior to the actual events. He knew _for sure_ that he reminded both of them to no end about helping. Sugawara dug deep into the pocket of his sweatshirt for his phone, though while glancing down unintentionally as he had noticed how the bottom of his pants were damp and the moisture had spread upwards a fair amount as though a wet plague sweeping over the land that was indeed one of his favorite pairs of pants.

 _No_.

Sugawara panicked and began discarding his clothes starting from his shoes- however that immediately left his feet exposed to the soggy plague and he had no choice but to hastily discard his pants and then scout out from the wet cardboard boxes where his other pairs of pants hid. He wasted no time sliding into the first thing he found which was sweatpants, and then abruptly whipping his phone out of his sweatshirt pocket. Surprisingly neither Tanaka nor Nishinoya had left any messages about being absent. Perhaps it was a work day for both of them and Sugawara had forgotten? It seemed a bit unlikely for him to be the forgetful one out of the trio but it was possible. If that was the case- and he would just assume it was- then he was free to essentially bum around in his new little…well, truthfully it was a rather sad and meek apartment at the moment. It contained bare minimum furniture and appliances but on the plus side he always considered himself to be very low maintenance so it in an oddly convenient way (or so he told himself) it worked out. Slinking into his new bedroom, he threw himself backwards onto his bed and sprawled out as if he intended to make a snow-angel atop of the mattress.

And then he shifted.

 

And shifted.

 

Then shifted some more.

 

“Not comfy,” Suga whined in a small voice as not to let the world hear his dissatisfaction.

He squeezed his eyes closed with force and then squirmed about until he found a decent position that didn’t compromise the well-being of his spine in the future-

And then he felt a small dip underneath him for a split second and he immediately jolted upright in response. The bed was definitely not one of those waterbeds so it had no right whatsoever to be engaging in any sort of dipping or jiggling out of the blue. Suga gently tested the surface of the bed a few more times with the palm of his hand, warily anticipating a small creature to pop out suddenly. A few minutes of testing the surface he found no creatures but he did discover that his mattress had an unpleasant habit of randomly collapsing a little on itself if enough pressure was applied. Suga frowned.

 

First no Tanaka and Noya, then wet pants and now a mattress that was halfway to quicksand. His first day in town was definitely not off to a pleasant start to say the least.

 

* * *

 

Two orders of French toast with original maple syrup on the side, _specifically hot_ , three hot chocolates with extra whipped cream and one order of strawberry shortcake with the whipped cream on the side (because apparently that would cause his food to instantaneously become soggy and nasty, as the customer worded it with no less than a tone of condescension this visit) with the specific order of extra strawberries on the side but _definitely_ not the side of the dish where the whipped cream had been banished to (because _that darned whipped cream, making everything it touches soggy_ the customer tried to tease him with a the biggest shit-eating grin ever, as though it would make his order any less fucking weird).

 

Aside from Noya suffering quietly deep, _deep_ down over ridiculous customer orders as per usual at the café, this was just a normal day. If anything it was a good day because he had yet to see any customers spill syrup everywhere (he swore the lack of coordination once people picked up containers of syrup was just ridiculous) or worse, people getting shitfaced off of dessert shots.

It was still early in the day though and there was plenty of time left for horrendous things to play out.

 

Once Noya was finished writing down the order he entered the kitchen quietly as not to throw Bokuto out of his groove while he very clearly was preparing to make some sort of cheesecake, judging from the purely focused gaze he had on while rolling up his sleeves. His gaze was always pretty alert and focused for sure, but Bokuto in the zone was _much_ more intense than usual with his golden irises piercing whatever lay in his path with nothing less than precision and tact. Noya peered around the kitchen and even Kuroo was busy making some sort of…tiramisu? Not surprising, today it was selling out pretty fast so it was to be expected that even sometimes the owner had to pitch in some sort of effort.

“Can either of you spare a moment? Order coming in,” Noya said with perhaps the slightest bit or urgency in his voice, as he wasn’t entirely in a position _just_ yet to be making the dishes. More or less, he was still annoyingly so more reliant on the others than he wanted to be.

Both Bokuto and Kuroo glanced up at Noya and then exchanged glances. Naturally enthusiastic to help despite his previous state of extreme focus, Bokuto smiled from ear to ear and motioned for Noya to hand him the order sheet. Once he did Bokuto managed to glance over the sheet for a second before crinkling his nose in a false gesture of disgust.

“That dude who’s weird about the whipped cream came by again? Dude.” Bokuto said in disbelief while shaking his head and running his free hand through his ashen bristled hair, though his body was moving almost unconsciously over to start the French toast.

“I think it’s fair to say that he’s you most ridiculous customer,” Noya added in with a quick cross of his arms against his chest.

Kuroo shook his head and then without needing an invitation, his lips curved up to form his wickedly signature catty grin.

“Yuu, I would _love_ to tell you all about the shit I’ve seen here but it would be wise to go check on the customers every now and again, right?” Kuroo said with a minor nod in Noya’s direction that bounced his swept over bedhead bangs.

Noya nodded and left the kitchen after catching the hint.

 

Back out front with the customers things seemed to be running quite smoothly. He maybe had to pitch in and seat a few people, clean off tables, but it was nothing too strenuous for the time being. His break was at noon but luckily he hadn’t been snared in any customer mess situations so he was free to go once the time had rolled around.

However, free to go wasn’t entirely even free to go because Tanaka was waiting outside the café for him with his usual look of delinquency. Not that it was an issue though- who wouldn’t want to be visited by their best friend during work? Noya grinned widely and greeted him just as exuberantly as Tanaka had done to him, only to have to freeze up mid greeting as Tanaka’s presence reminded him of something important. 

_Suga was supposed to be doing moving things today, wasn’t he?_

No way. That had to be…tomorrow, right?

 

Tanaka slapped Noya roughly on the backside and gave him a genuine look of concern (though with a face like that, it wasn’t obvious to just anyone). Noya whipped his head around and pointed his thumb behind him slowly. He could feel the uncertainty almost dripping from himself so he could only _imagine_ how uncool he looked right now.

“Tanaka, was the thing today? With Suga?” Noya said as he tilted his head to the left, hoping maybe it would cause some sort of much needed blood flow.

“Suga? Oh, you mean with the boxes and-“

Tanaka froze up, and then looked at his phone. His face quickly transitioned from one of confidence to that of confusion then promptly horror.

“I’ll be damned. That is today,” Tanaka cursed in a low tone and adjusted his beanie nervously.

“ _Shit_.” Noya cursed under his breath and scuffed his shoes against the pavement a bit roughly, “You’re gonna have to help him without me, I don’t get off until late today.”

Tanaka snorted loudly and then posed a little.

“Oi, I’ll do it. But that better mean that this Friday you’re not gonna bail on hanging out again.” Tanaka said with a teasing wiggle of his finger directed at Noya, who in turn smirked and gave an exuberant thank you as Tanaka went off on his way to help Suga.

 Noya heard the beginning of incessant tapping on the glass behind him so he turned and saw Bokuto gesturing as politely as he could that his break was over. Before he had even managed to get past the first couple tables a customer accidentally spilled syrup directly in front of him onto the floor in addition to breaking the container it had been in.

He hadn’t even been back inside for more than three minutes and the worst part of the day was beginning.

 

* * *

 

Tanaka knew very well that Suga had needed help unpacking, not for the sake of actual labor and help lifting things- but rather, for the company. Suga lived alone and sure he _definitely_ had friends and was a pleasant ray of sunshine to everyone around him. Tanaka had _total_ faith that his personality would make him a magnet in no time for new friends.  However, sometimes his closeness to him and Noya in particular left him a little bit clingier and awkward in something of a backwards fashion where Suga became too spoiled and refused to stem outside and stretch his circle of friends, despite him being the oldest of the bunch and easily the most mature. By no means did Noya and Tanaka find him to be a true bother, but…

“- and then I kid you not, the mattress started doing this weird _wibbly-wobbly_ thing,” Suga whined in a low voice while he was crouched over one of the cardboard boxes but Tanaka could tell very well without having to look over that he was probably gesturing to go along with his tale.

 Suga needed to get out more often, no doubt about it.

 

Many praises and ridiculous stories from Suga later, the two of them somehow managed to get all of the boxes unloaded. Suga protested strongly in favor of keeping the boxes afterwards, probably with the vague intention (again) of getting a cat but Tanaka beat him to the punch and disposed of the boxes while he had his back turned. _It was for his own good_ , Tanaka reasoned. In response Suga gave him a painfully signature rub to the head until the point where Tanaka was worried his beanie might catch fire. Tanaka chortled loudly as usual, giving Suga one last hearty _thwack_ on the back for good measure.

“Annnnnnnnd the deed is done,” Suga said through a sleepy voice, stretching a few times next to Tanaka.

“Yeah, yeah. Now you’re free to go out and _do things_.” Tanaka said gruffly, both eyeing and tilting his head to the door repeatedly as to…well, as nicely as he could tell Suga that he couldn’t just bum around forever.

Suga gaped at Tanaka as though the gesture was offensive and then pouted-

 _Uh oh, here is comes_.

With puppy-eyes.

“Tanaka, where on earth am I supposed to go? I’ll get lost and then unloading my stuff’ll be for naught.”

“Suga-“

“ _For naught_.”

It was unbelievable that Suga was the older one here. Tanaka reached over and firmly grappled onto Suga’s shoulders, putting the good 20 pound difference Tanaka had on him to use to usher him out of the apartment. Suga groaned and let himself be guided out to a certain extent, his feet moving with just enough control as to not twist in a weird direction over the ground.

“I’m starving, so we’re going to go eat,” Tanaka said with a certain lack of enthusiasm at this point.

And there it went in the blink of an eye, Suga’s resistance. He whipped his head around and perked up, the mention of food clearly being his weakness.

 _Unbelievable_.


	2. The art of not panicking

The Black Cat Café was always fairly busy but today in particular it was _exponentially_ busy.

Kuroo had Bokuto constantly switching between the kitchen and behind the mini bar, which admittedly was the most reasonable way to go since Bokuto could handle it- but there was no denying that he felt a bit bad to make his best friend constantly running around the place. Kuroo himself had his hands full with trying to man wherever Bokuto wasn’t which ended up being in the kitchen, behind the bar, and then sometimes in the position of a waiter. The other employees were certainly trying their best from the subtle distress that Kuroo could see in their actions.

 But then there was Nishinoya Yuu.

He was being surprisingly quiet, probably having gone into a much focused mode again which was nice. Granted he was still energetic and lively as ever with subtly flirting with worried female employees, but he was filling in the holes that the other stressed out employees left. A table needed refills? Customers were becoming impatient? Nishinoya was quick to respond and pacify the wary customers who had to wait a bit longer for their order, keeping an extra steady eye on disgruntled children prone to causing messes. Kuroo simply smirked at Nishinoya whenever he passed his way and nodded.

 _This is what makes Nishinoya a good employee_ , Kuroo made a mental note to himself for later.

 

 The flowing in of customers took a mild buffer later on in the evening, most likely due to the general concept of eating _real_ _food_ for dinner instead of sweets (which Kuroo thought was absolutely ridiculous because if breakfast for dinner could work why couldn’t dessert for dinner?). The smaller amount of customers was an all-around relief to Kuroo’s employees, no doubt about it from the genuine smiles they were now distributing compared to the painfully forced smiles from earlier. As a thank you Kuroo had given a few of them the greenlight to go home for the night- he knew his employees’ limit and it was better not to have a completely burnt out group before the week even began. Peering around the café he carefully surveyed who was left on duty, then glanced back over his shoulder at Bokuto who was taking a break behind the mini bar. Despite getting more than his share of exercise today Bokuto was still beaming goofily while cradling his phone in his hands while texting quite obviously. Kuroo peeked back over at Nishinoya who was in a corner taking a minor break as well. Kuroo chuckled to himself softly and went to man the host area by the door. He wasn’t expecting enough people to flood in as to overwhelm him- not that it was easy to overwhelm him- so he seated himself comfortably near the door. It didn’t last for long though, as not long after Nishinoya’s friend made a grand appearance through the doors.

With him was a slightly smaller fellow, clearly ducking behind Tanaka. He wasn’t well hidden for sure though as Kuroo could clearly manage to see enough of his face to spot a cute little beauty mark on his cheek which his hair didn’t _quite_ hide. Tanaka stood upright in front of Kuroo and made an awful face which Kuroo supposed was an attempt at…a _grin_? _A smile_? His face was awful in general and he had no idea how to read it.

 

“Good to see you again, Tanaka. Table or booth?” Kuroo asked with a wide grin, feeling himself unintentionally sizing Tanaka up a bit.

“Booth, obviously,” Tanaka said with the most snaggletooth grin accompanied by an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Kuroo nodded and escorted the two to a booth close to the front of the café. The smaller fellow with what he could clearly see as ash grey locks now that he wasn’t hiding sat across from Tanaka, placing Tanaka on the left side of the booth by himself. Tanaka gave Kuroo an expectant look as he handed both of them menus- he was definitely trying to play with Kuroo because Kuroo _knew_ for a fact Tanaka had visited enough times to know the menu front and back and yet he was waiting for Kuroo to read him off everything anyway. Kuroo smirked and began to wave his pen like a composer-

“Good evening. Is there anything I can start you off with for drinks? You’ll find the list of refreshments on the very back page of the menu.”

The fellow with ash grey locks glanced over the list fairly quickly and for an instant Kuroo spotted a twinkle in his eyes as he turned to Kuroo. He looked no less excited than a child on Christmas morning.

“Do you need a moment?”

“Coffee for me,” Tanaka said plainly with a small shrug.

“Can I get…a hot chocolate?” The smaller fellow asked but he seemed not completely sold on it.

Kuroo squinted at him a little and rubbed his chin before it hit him.

“Would you like extra whipped cream? It’s not an issue.” Kuroo insisted.

The smaller fellow looked like a relief had been lifted and he nodded with a progressively growing smile across his face. A fair amount of customers were hesitant to ask for special requests. In what universe was it unreasonable to ask for a little extra dollop of whipped cream? That one unpleasantly difficult customer who went crazy about the whipped cream aside as he was an obvious outlier, it sure as hell wasn’t like there was a scarcity of whipped cream in the back, _that_ was for sure. Kuroo nodded and made a mental note of the drinks and then made his way into the kitchen to pour said drinks in a timely fashion- and of course he made sure to graciously pile the whipped cream upon the smaller fellow’s drink. He was pleased with his own doing for sure when he saw the look on his face as he gazed over at his mountain of whipped cream.

Tanaka shook his head and looked at Kuroo in disbelief.

“Are there any items you’d like me to start you off with? I can tell you about any item on the menu,” Kuroo said with a hint of smugness under his breath- as the owner, of course he knew all of his dishes.

Tanaka waved his hand and smirked.

“Surprise me.”

“Of course. And for you?” Kuroo asked as he turned to look at the smaller fellow-

Who, by some miracle or pure mistake (he couldn’t tell which it was), had gotten some of the whipped cream on the tip of his nose. Had he not felt the sensation of it? Kuroo pulled a napkin out of his pocket and quietly offered it to the smaller fellow who looked really surprised, but not as surprised as Tanaka who magically hadn’t noticed either up until that point.

“Oi, oi- Suga, you’ve got a little something on your nose,” Tanaka teased and pointed.

Kuroo resisted squinting hard at the smaller fellow, feeling like that name rang a bell. _Suga?_ The smaller fellow sheepishly grinned and rubbed the tip of his nose roughly until he had wiped it clean and then peered back over at Kuroo who was still trying to think why on earth that name sounded familiar.

“I think I’d…I’d like the French toast. I guess? I haven’t had it in a while so I mean…why not, you know?” He said with a small shrug and smile.

Kuroo leaned back dramatically and put his weight on his back leg, attempting something along the lines of a sassy contrapposto pose. He even twirled his pen between his fingers and then pointed it at the smaller fellow.

“Well then, good sir-“

“Suga.”

“-… _Suga_ , you are in for quite the treat. We make an _especially_ mean serving of French toast. Ours won in an award, even, last year,” Kuroo gloated with his head held maybe just a tad bit too high for the effect he was trying to get at.

Suga snorted and his lips were curving very quickly into a smile, a very genuine one at that by the gentle crinkles forming at the outer corners of his eyes. He nodded and Tanaka was definitely shooting him the dirtiest look. Both of them, actually, were receiving quite the nasty look but then again it could’ve simply been his normal face.

“You’re too flashy, Kuroo.” Tanaka sneered while directing his gaze at Kuroo.

Suga sipped happily from his cup once more and chuckled.

“Kettle calling the pot black,” Suga said a bit quietly but Kuroo saw him swiftly nudge Tanaka under the table with his foot. Tanaka made an even worse face this time (just when you didn’t think it was possible, it was) and Kuroo escorted himself off to the kitchen to make the French toast.

Once the task of making the French toast had been finished (and admittedly perhaps Kuroo put a _little_ extra love into making this one serving) he put a generous amount of powdered sugar on top and then delivered it out with a container of maple syrup. Tanaka, for being a rascal as always, got a slice of strawberry shortcake. He began to make a fuss and twisted his face into something mean but when Kuroo offered to switch it he refused to part ways with said dish. Suga on the other hand seemed to admire the dish for a minute or two before diving in and just when Kuroo assumed he couldn’t get any more peculiar if that was even the right word-

That poor boy had to stop mid meal to stop and actually savor the dish. He was just about tearing through it and really enjoying himself much more than Kuroo had intended for him to- which was a plus, for sure- but every now and again he’d pause and some sort of pleasure ran wild over his face. His cheeks would become flushed and he’d have to muffle himself. Granted Kuroo had expected him to be fairly in awe at the flavors but this guy was taking it to the next level. A tinge of mischief ran through his veins on and off and he could feel himself about to give in. Kuroo considered leaning in close to Suga and spooking him _just a little_ to see if he would stop muffling himself for a moment but then he took into consideration how poor that was for business besides the obvious underlying fact that it would make him come off especially creepy.

Kuroo wasn’t that type of guy. He was a prankster, maybe in the right time and place, but that wasn’t here.

“Jesus Suga. Hungry much?” Tanaka teased while pointing a fork at Suga’s now empty plate.

Suga shrugged and his face looked free of guilt from shoveling down the French toast.

“I don’t know what I was expecting, but that was _very_ tasty,” Suga said in a cheery voice and looked at Kuroo with a fairly excited face, “...So thank you.”

Tanaka snickered something under his breath about him being a ‘sugar fiend’ and motioned for the check. Kuroo passed it along to him slowly and pivoted around quickly when he heard fast footsteps. He turned to see Nishinoya who was looking relatively uncomfortable until he spotted Tanaka and Suga behind Kuroo at an odd angle. At that point he became quickly revved up as earlier and was about to start bouncing eagerly on his heels when Kuroo gave him an expectant look as to remind him to take it down a notch.

“Is there an issue, Yuu?”

Nishinoya’s ever-growing balloon of enthusiasm popped. His face was dripping with annoyance or something similar.

“That pudding-head kid is here again. And he’s making the other waiters uncomfortable because he’s just kinda… _you know_ ,” Nishinoya mumbled under his breath and shrugged.

 _Unresponsive_.

 

The Black Cat Café was sure to get a vast array of interesting customers dropping by, but most usually the ones that were well known were not ones that the staff liked- generally speaking, anyhow. This one kid in particular (the staff had so cruelly begun to refer to him as “pudding-head” in reference to his hair with the bleached blond hair and very prominent dark roots, which Kuroo admittedly could see the resemblance if he tried) had a habit of dropping by much later in the day once it was quite empty and camping out for a while before his ginger friend would come by too (who the staff seemed to like a lot more in comparison due to his ability to order for both of them with ease). The issue wasn't him camping out, it wasn't that he was just loitering unnecessarily- it was how he interacted with the waiters. Which, according to the female staff, was not at all. Or if he did it became very awkward and uncomfortable because he just wasn’t social enough to hold up his end in conversations. He was not a troublemaker and the staff didn't _hate_ him but with his lack of responsiveness to the staff trying their best to serve him it did come as something of an inconvenience. Nishinoya had even tried to interact with him a few times as the staff reported back to Kuroo (who had never actually attempted himself to try) but even then the boy would refuse to make eye contact and stuck to mumbling. Needless to say the staff was just all in all stuck with how to work with this less than responsive boy. Kuroo nodded solemnly and patted Nishinoya on the shoulder.

“Take care of them and I’ll see what I can do,” Kuroo said with a grin and sauntered over through a few aisles to spot the boy sitting in his usual booth.

The boy had his face down and Kuroo didn’t have to approach him too closely to be able to feel the intense atmosphere coming from his direction. When Kuroo squinted carefully he could spot a handheld device in his clutches (a deathgrip at that) and he was furiously tapping buttons. His focus was certainly unwavering in that his eyes never darted anywhere aside from along the screen of his handheld device. Kuroo made his way over a bit more cautiously then, as not to startle the boy and raised a hand slightly as a minimalistic wave. The boy continued to ignore his presence and so Kuroo quietly- but not too quietly as so that he would grab his attention- cleared his throat. Surprisingly that did the trick.

The boy glanced up for half a second before returning his gaze to the screen of his device which was more than enough time for Kuroo to notice his very _stunning_ feline-like eyes, his irises a peculiar copper color and the pupils shaped oddly similarly to those of cats. Putting his cat loving mindset aside for a second however, he began to grin. Acknowledged for half a second was better than nothing. When Kuroo did a quick scan over the tabletop he noticed no food or drinks or anything of the like. Perhaps the staff hadn't even bothered to begin his order?

 “I apologize for interrupting you, but it seems as though you haven’t had anyone come to serve you yet. May I start you off with a drink?”

 The boy paused what he was doing for a moment and the noise of him tapping buttons stopped. His eyes darted all across the tabletop and then essentially everywhere _but_ onto Kuroo. Kuroo opened his mouth to begin listing drinks but then the boy cringed a little and was…shrinking in his seat? In a matter of seconds, he found himself watching anxiety spread like wildfire over the boy as he began fidgeting and shifting his gaze around hastily.

 

Kuroo froze in place.

 _Shit_.

 

* * *

 

Kenma was panicking.

He was not good with people by any means (understatement of the year, as Hinata put it), and here only a few feet away from him was a waiter- one he had most definitely _never_ interacted with before despite all the times previously he had come to this café in particular- trying to take his drink order. Kenma fidgeted and squirmed deeper into the booth seat anxiously, growing into a hot mess of uncomfortableness in a matter of seconds. From the corner of his eye he could spot the waiter simply frozen in spot, probably as unready if not more so than Kenma for this interaction. Kenma had probably been waiting uninterrupted at the booth for a while and it was most normal for the waiters and waitresses to feign noticing his existence. He felt put especially on the spot as the waiter didn't stop looking his way, making his face burn up nervously as he dodged eye contact with the waiter completely. His heartbeat had seemed dormant up until then but he could hear it pounding painfully loud in his ears to where it began blocking out everything else for what felt like the slowest minute he had yet to experience. His nerves had to join in on the anxiety party too, small waves of shaking coming in unpleasant increments along his legs and arms. At that point opening his mouth to respond was _not_ an option. Kenma knew in the back of his panicking mind, somewhere deep down in the midst of everything, that he was most likely making the waiter gradually more uncomfortable the longer he took to respond (Hinata had warningly brought to his attention a number of times that his anxiety spells had an effect on those around him, but it wasn't like Kenma could just simply _turn it off_ whenever he pleased). The longer he took to respond though, the guiltier he began to feel.

 _Hinata. I need Hinata_.

Kenma shakily went to reach into his pocket to find his phone, hoping he could reach Hinata. If he could get Hinata, Hinata would know what to say and calm Kenma’s nerves, he-

 “Here, water,” The waiter cooed quietly.

He lightly pushed a glass of water across the tabletop, making sure it stopped directly in front of Kenma. Once his hands were off it the waiter backed up a few steps and put his hands up, showing Kenma the palms of his hands. Maybe it was…a friendly gesture? A peaceful offering? Kenma huffed quietly as he slowly and cautiously deflated from his swelled up status of anxiety to the best of his ability and stared down the glass of water. From the corner of his eye he could see the waiter start to smile as Kenma cautiously reached out to take a sip of water. Kenma tried to ignore his gaze halfway in hopes of not getting worked up again so quickly if possible.

“I apologize if I caught you off guard,” The waiter said in a quiet voice once more and dipped his head briefly and apologetically.

Kenma nodded slowly and continued to drink the water, feeling a tad bit more at ease. Quiet voices, _that_ he could work with he found himself assuring himself into anything but another trip into anxiety filled slow-motion. Kenma peered up slowly and dared to look over the waiter, noting various things in a heartbeat about him from his ridiculous height (Kenma was sitting so that was obviously not a good comparison) to his goofy hairstyle (had he just rolled out of bed or did he attempt that look?) to his…well, face. Faces were weird in general and Kenma wasn’t one to just stare at faces for the heck of it (especially since he wasn’t big on eye contact) but there wasn’t anything mildly intimidating in his look the longer he contemplated it. It wasn't reassuring like Hinata’s cheery face, for sure, but it wasn't piercing through him and making him feel out of place and intimidated as he had previously expected.

With a lack of a better explanation, his face was somewhat neutral. It wasn’t scary but it wasn’t exactly sweet and endearing either.

“It happens,” Kenma whispered and averted his gaze comfortably back to his PSP but at least propped it atop of the tabletop this time.

He could spot a small frown on the waiter from his peripheral and paused mid-grab on his PSP.

“That isn't good to hear. Are you at least feeling alright?”

Kenma nodded and let out a small hum noise, finally resting the PSP in his palms once more. He wasn't fond of cold things but the way the PSP’s cold plastic and metals weighed in his hand felt comfortable. It felt good, even, to have his hands physically busy with something. The way he could curl his fingers around the edges of the PSP from his middle fingers that circled the hard backing to his index fingers that rested along the smooth L and R buttons- every part of it was relaxing. Being preoccupied with games, that was most pleasant. Kenma could hear shifting of fabric and glanced over to see the waiter posing with a goofy smile, a pocket notebook ready. Kenma could feel his anxiety slowly swelling up inside himself again like a pot about to reach its boiling point, knowing _very_ what came next.

“If you happen to be ready to order, I can take that for you- and if you aren't, that’s perfectly fine and I’ll give you as much time as you need,” The waiter said calmly while doing a few slow gestures, but cautiously took a step back once he was done.

Kenma pressed his thumb down a little rougher than usual on the directional pad. He tried staying half distracted with his game and breathed a little heavier than intended (trying to breathe steadily and calmly was a trick Hinata made him practice). Normally he would stall until Hinata arrived and then have Hinata do the ordering for both. Hinata was running a bit late this evening though and admittedly he was a tad bit hungry. Kenma huffed, trying to decide whether he’d rather starve or embarrass himself trying to order. Starving seemed like a pretty viable option since it wasn't _really_ starving himself in reality because he knew Hinata would show up. Albeit late, Hinata would show. Kenma bit his lower lip and shrunk in his seat, pushing his own back into the booth’s seat again-

But much to his surprise the waiter didn't leave. The other waiters in the past would definitely give him space like he was sick with something, hesitant to be around him if he showed an ounce of anxiety which he could very well _not_ help. Granted the waiter had already witnessed part of an anxiety attack, but that should’ve been all the more reason for him to abandon him.

“What are you playing by the way?”

Kenma paused and glanced back at the waiter for a second only to notice his closeness to the table. The waiter stood only a few inches away from the table now rather than the perhaps foot away he had stationed himself previously. Admittedly Kenma jumped a little bit.

“ _Monster Hunter,”_ Kenma mumbled and then focused back onto his PSP, squinting hard at the screen.

As Kenma said so there was a huge dinosaur sort of monster before him just waiting by a water bank. Without even hesitating he smashed a few buttons, commanding his character to whip out sluggishly an absurdly sized sword only to mince the beast into pieces. Sadly a few baby creatures of the same species watched in horror from a few feet away- but Kenma rushed his character over in something of a sprint and made little work of them too. It was a shame that the smaller ones didn't drop bones and nice items but in all fairness he couldn't just let them get away alive. Not that they would be witnesses later or anything but with the dynamics of if you could kill it, had you the means to do so why  _wouldn't_  you? In the back of his head he could almost hear Hinata whining out in a teasingly offended voice _you’re so brutal_ and he could feel a fragment of a smile curl upon his lips.

“Did you just brutally murder baby dinosaurs?”

Kenma slowly nodded.

“Mercy killing.” Kenma whispered grimly under his breath.

“ _Ouch_. I suppose I know where you stand on dinosaurs,” The waiter said with a wide grin that Kenma could spot once more from his peripheral.

Kenma shrugged and though his focus was primarily on his game, when the waiter moved without even thinking he glanced over to see what he was up to this time around. The waiter was folding a piece of paper into a small triangle, and then presented it to Kenma in the palm of his hand like it was a gift. Not sure what to do with it per se, Kenma dared to repeatedly glanced back and forth between the waiter and the paper triangle.

If a series of question marks could be converted properly into an actual facial expression that was what he felt his face must’ve looked like.

“It’s a paper football-”

“It’s a triangle.”

“-and you flick it across the table to get it over the other person’s end-zone, which would be their fingers. You hold your hands like this-” The waiter continued on and demonstrated whatever the ‘end-zone’ concept was with his own fingers, “and then you shoot.”

“It’s still just a triangle.”

“Ah, well. Be that as it may…will you humor me? Will you play with me for a bit?”

Kenma had to pause his game for real this time. He wasn't one to say no to games unless it was a physically intensive one. This sad game of flicking a paper triangle back and forth seemed boring from the mere sound of it, to be honest.

“Maybe,” he mumbled, knowing very well in his own vocabulary that it equaled a polite no.

“One game. If you win, your meal is on the house.”

Almost on cue Kenma’s stomach rumbled and the only sort of expression he could manage was a sheepish one knowing how the waiter had heard his stomach just as clearly.

 

* * *

 

Hinata had a lot of poor habits, but the worst one was probably running late.

Today however running late was surprisingly _not_ his fault. Today at the center they were supposed to be doing their shots for all the dolphins, which was an arduous task in itself- but then the new assistants spent too much time fooling around and somehow Hinata got caught in the crosshairs while trying to discipline them, only to be mistaken for a new assistant himself. In short, the new assistants had gotten themselves in trouble and managed to take Hinata down with them. The punishment was nothing brutal but by no means did he exactly wish to be subjected to staying after hours to help clean some of the tanks. He loved his job, and the people he worked with were fantastic but at the end of the day it really didn't make it any more pleasant to have to scrub down tanks.

A few of the new assistants snickered and sneered at Hinata while he endured the punishment, probably getting a good laugh out of watching him struggle to overcome the burden that was his height. Regardless though Hinata stuck to his punishment and ignored the assistants bailing on their part (up until he realized that he would get scolded too if the task was found to be incomplete, so that was implicitly put onto him as well). Once done he painstakingly drew out his phone and dared to check the time.

It was half past eight.

 

Panic crashed over Hinata in a wave as he immediately realized that he had places to be. Or rather, _a_ place to be and the person waiting for him would not be happy to be kept waiting. He turned around and ran as fast as his legs would carry him in hopes of catching the next bus at the station just a few blocks from the center, knowing very well it would take him a painful amount of time to commute back to meet up with Kenma. The minutes passed by just as slowly as he knew they would along the ride, though in part he knew that the more he overthought the idea of Kenma sitting alone and anxiously by himself in a booth by himself the slower the ride would feel. The bus was half empty when he began boarding and much to his luck it only took about an hour this time around- which was totally ridiculous and Hinata was plenty energized from sitting to run almost three-fourths of the way to the café as soon as the bus released him. Upon finding the café he let out a heavy sigh and entered, hoping that Kenma was still hanging around somewhere. The much delayed thought hit him that perhaps Kenma had texted him, but alas nothing as he rummaged through his pockets for his phone.

“Hinata!”

Hinata perked up for a second, recognizing the voice of a certain equally energetic male. In a matter of seconds the slightly shorter male had sprung in front of Hinata and was grinning widely. Feeling the contagiousness of his grin Hinata felt his own lips curl into a similar shape.

“Noya!” Hinata said with a returned amount of enthusiasm.

Noya gave a small nod in his direction and then glanced back over his shoulder and nodded in the direction of one of the back booths. Of course, Kenma had a thing for sitting far away from everyone and everything. He wasn't exactly the social type (one of the numerous understatements of the year), which definitely brought to questioning how Hinata and he even wound up as best friends. Hinata slowly made his way back through the aisles as guided by Noya. Much to his surprise, Kenma wasn't sulking in a corner booth. More surprisingly so, Kenma wasn't alone.

The hairs on the back of his neck shot up as he contemplated butting in on the more than likely chance that poor Kenma was being harassed or the like and he needed to be defended, but then Noya nudged his shoulder and leaned in close.

“They've been at this for at least an hour,” Noya whispered in something of an awe.

Hinata went stiff.

“Has this guy been bothering him?”

“Wait, what? Him?” Noya said with a loose gesture over at the fellow seated across from Kenma in Kenma’s booth.

“Yeah, _him_ ,” Hinata mumbled and squinted aggressively from a distance at said fellow.

“Nah, that’s just Kuroo. He managed to take his order and then-“

Hinata whipped his head around and was about to shake that proud grin off of Noya’s face right after he figured out how many panic attacks it had taken Kenma to order, but just as he reached out to Noya he heard his name being called. He glanced back over and Kenma was slowly flagging him down with a wave while the fellow was removing himself from his seat across from Kenma at the booth. Hinata perked up at the sight of a not distressed Kenma and strode over with haste, just to make sure Kenma was really in fact doing alright-

Which, considering that Kenma didn't nervously have his face buried into the screen of one of his many games nor was he fidgeting like crazy in his seat things seemed to be fine.

 

“K-Kenma! I’m sorry I’m late, the new assistants got me in trouble and then they dropped the whole punishment on me and then… _the tanks,_ ” Hinata shuddered for a moment and shook his head quickly, remembering quite vividly the inside of those tanks. Kenma merely nodded and motioned for Hinata to join him at the booth rather than standing around. Hinata smiled and cozied up in an instant across from Kenma but the warm seat wasn't a pleasant reminder of that Kuroo guy. It was bad enough in a sense he was just standing there a few feet from the table with the biggest shit-eating grin. While Hinata was definitely proud of Kenma for ordering on his own somehow he was a bit bothered with the current atmosphere. He definitely felt out of some sort of loop and it was slightly bothersome.

“Hey, Hinata,” Kenma said quietly and eyed the empty plate to the right of him on the table, “…I ordered already. Sorry.”

Hinata snapped out of his thoughts and smiled widely, giving Kenma a big thumbs up.

“Ah, no worries! I made you wait a long time and you probably were starving, right?” Hinata said in a cheery voice then turned to the face the waiter who looked ready to take his order.

“Is there any sort of drink that I can start you off with? Or do you perhaps know what you’d like to order?”

“Oh. Um, can I just get some water? And maybe a slice of key lime pie?”

The waiter scribbled the order down and nodded at Hinata before darting off promptly back to the kitchen. Once he was gone Hinata bubbled up suddenly with excitement and looked at Kenma who looked like he was bracing himself slightly for the release of it. Hinata waited until Kenma stopped bracing himself though to speak up.

“Kenma, I’m really proud of you for ordering,” Hinata pointed out in a sing-song voice, to which Kenma in response blushed a little and dodged his gaze. Hinata peered over happily to meet his gaze and could _definitely_ spot Kenma’s quirky smile- it was something between a pout and a weak smile. Considering the number of times that Hinata had ordered for him (to the point it was almost second nature for Hinata), for Kenma to actually have to interact with a waiter and coherently at that, Hinata was proud of him. Admittedly he was slightly impressed to hear Kenma worked past his ever-present anxiety. He considered asking him how he did it, but that was probably somewhat uncalled for…

“Hinata, how was the shot thing?”

“Hm?”

It took a moment for it to click mentally but once it did Hinata fidgeted in his seat excitedly.

“Oh! The _vaccines_ , yeah! Well, started off okay I guess but then you have to watch them for at least an hour afterwards in case of over-sensitivity to the vaccine, especially for the younger ones. I mean, not that anything bad _did_ happen but it doesn’t hurt to be careful. It’s actually not too bad to watch, maybe you could watch sometime. It’s like a flu shot you get at the doctor, an intramuscular injection and-“

Kenma raised a hand weakly to cut Hinata off.

“That’s a very generous offer, I’m sure. But I’ll…pass.” Kenma mumbled and averted his gaze back to the tabletop.

“Oh. Um…well, that’s okay! Maybe you can visit some other time then. Maybe,” Hinata offered but Kenma’s face was telling him that as usual, it wasn't going to happen.

For some reason Kenma wasn't fond of coming to visit Hinata at work. If it was because it could get too crowded for Kenma, that he would understand. If it was because it was too exhausting for Kenma to make the trip over, that he would understand. Kenma did come down once and- okay, so admittedly Kenma touching a dolphin for the first time was not the _best_ idea for someone with sensory issues. The sliminess did not match up well with Kenma but they would have never known until it happened and he never touched one after that (which was a shame because dolphins were pretty bomb in Hinata’s personal opinion). Furthermore Hinata made a point to steer Kenma away from slimy things after that mishap, hoping to turn it into a learning experience.

“Here is your water and here is your slice of key lime pie. Enjoy,” The waiter said as he slid a glass of water across the tabletop to Hinata, taking extra caution not to slam the platter of food down before him.

“Thank you,” Hinata chimed happily, poking his fork into the slice of pie with little hesitancy.

From the corner of his eye Hinata could see the waiter wave to Kenma before leaving once more. Hinata paused shoveling the food down and waggled his fork at Kenma who inched back to avoid any flying particles of pie.

“What’s up with that?” Hinata asked, tilting his head to the right curiously.

Kenma shifted his gaze back to the tabletop and was scanning the general area, focusing certainly not on Hinata.

“I…I don’t know. He was just being nice I suppose.”

“Oh. I mean, he _seems_ nice, I guess,” Hinata added with a small shrug and resumed eating his slice of pie contently. He felt a bit more at ease with something in his stomach and at this point easily dismissed whatever strife he had previously with the waiter. Kenma peered back up at Hinata slowly and nodded, slowly tucking a strand or two of hair behind his ear.

“His name is Kuroo. He’s alright, I _guess_ ,” Kenma mumbled with a small shrug.

Hinata snorted and tried to finish gobbling the rest of his slice of pie down, chasing it with a huge gulp of water. For a split second he may have been struggling to breath between the food and water but he recovered quickly. Watching the whole thing Kenma looked slightly horrified at first only to probably remember how often this sort of thing would happen to Hinata in his reckless haste. He merely shook his head at Hinata before gathering his things back into his messenger bag. Hinata on the other hand was busy trying to find his wallet up until Kenma motioned with a small wave of his hand for Hinata’s attention which he caught a glimpse of. He peeked up at Kenma while rummaging through his own bag.

“What’s up?”

“It’s covered already. Kuroo told me the meal would be on the house.”

“Wait, what?”

“It’s covered, I promise,” Kenma mumbled as he began to crawl out of the booth and readied himself to exit.

Hinata looked around the café warily until he met the gaze of Noya. He gestured repeatedly at their table to Noya, making sure to shrug and exuberantly show his confusion from afar. Noya nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

And apparently that was that.

 

 The whole walk home Hinata had been mostly quiet, with the exception of asking now and again if Kenma was alright (he was bundled up, sure, but that never stopped his asthma from acting up in this cold weather) to which Kenma would silently nod. The trip back to the apartment wasn’t too far a walk, maybe a fifteen minute trip if they were moving sluggishly- which they were. Once the apartment was in sight though the two of them hastened their pace and almost flew up the flight of stairs. They were right in the homestretch, reaching the 3rd floor’s hallway-

And then Hinata stopped in place.

Coming right out of his apartment and heading down in their direction with the sourest face was their massive killjoy neighbor, Kageyama. He was wearing some sort of faded sweatshirt and shorts (what sort of idiot wore that when it was like 20 degrees outside?), in his hand some sort of black trash bag filled with something solid. He stopped mid-step upon finding Kenma and Hinata at the end of the hallway, and merely scowled. Hinata instinctively reached out and guarded Kenma though Kenma wanted no part and completely moved himself aside, even going so far as to stare down the wall instead. He knew Kenma was non-confrontational though it wasn’t like Kageyama would go so far as to actually lay a hand on either of them- with the exception of his rare deathly iron grip he would bestow upon Hinata’s head, should he pester Kageyama too much.

“Why on _earth_ are you stomping around this late at night? People are below us, _dumbass_ ,” Kageyama snapped and gestured for Hinata to move out of his path.

Hinata growled under his breath and slowly moved aside, not wanting to give him the pleasure of getting to boss him around. Once Hinata was out of the way Kageyama clicked his tongue and jogged briskly down the stairs and away from them. As soon as he left their field of vision both Kenma and Hinata collectively exchanged rolled eyes and shrugs before continuing their trip down the hallway. Hinata glanced over his shoulder a few times to make sure it was clear before matting down his hair with both hands and twisting his face into an awful expression, then looking over at Kenma who simply snorted.

“ _Dumbass, dumbass, dumbass-_ it’s like his vocabulary is pretty limited,” Hinata imitated Kageyama in a quiet voice.

“That’s not true. He called you a just bastard last week,” Kenma pointed out as he reached into the front pocket of his messenger bag to retrieve his key.

Hinata smirked at Kenma and made sure to peer back over to make sure Kageyama wasn't about to come charging over at any moment and get revenge.

And he wasn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to make Kenma have a much more intense panic attack but I don't have the heart for it.  
> I apologize for the lack of bro-ness, I'll be sure to put some in.
> 
> I hope you like flustered characters.  
> (／・ω・)／


	3. Less than graceful handling

Suga had a problem.

Which, that was something of an understatement due to his list of ever growing issues ranging that sprung up very quickly after having moved from his constant battle at night between being delicate with his bed and simply replacing it (new mattresses were by no means cheap as he discovered quickly while researching) to finding a job opening. In the meanwhile of attempting to find a job at what he hoped to be a local daycare center (there was no way he was commuting 6 hours every morning to work at his old daycare center) he had excessive amounts of time on his hand and rather than idling around in his apartment like a normal person until he found a job Suga opted to get out. He considered dropping by and checking on Tanaka but Tanaka had warned him in advance that he’d be too backed up with heavy duty car repairs in the shop to hang out with Suga at his workplace. Which, that left Noya who didn’t seem to mind Suga coming in visiting (as a paying customer of course). Suga coming by wasn’t a problem per se, but how frequently came by-

Even he himself could admit that coming in once more every day for four days straight _may_ have been on the excessive side.

Noya swore that he definitely wasn't troubling him though each time Suga would get handed off a little _too_ eagerly to Kuroo (after about the second time he was handed off he decided to properly introduce himself to Suga). Suga couldn’t and didn’t complain though, some company was much better than nothing. It beat sitting around and being lonely in his apartment for sure, even if Kuroo’s need to tease Suga seemed to grow exponentially by the day.

The first return Kuroo had jokingly poked at Suga about ordering French toast and hot chocolate again, which he did. Suga hadn’t been too offended but rather embarrassed to be remembered as the friend who loved French toast. The second visit Suga had left out the hot chocolate from his order but that didn't stop Kuroo from beginning to refer to him as sugar fiend (although with a wicked smile on his face as he pronounced it intentionally as ‘ _Suga fiend’_ ). Once more he was remembered as the friend who loved French toast which began to feel like a ridiculous stigma rather than an attractive way of being remembered.

Suga expected Kuroo to judge him harshly for returning the third day but much to his surprise he was instead met with a collection of awful puns and jokes ready. _Incredibly_ awful puns and jokes at that, ones that made Suga’s cheeks sore from smiling and his throat dry from choking back laughter (Kuroo almost laughed hard enough at Suga’s response that he too needed a glass of water). Kuroo looked exceedingly pleased with himself at the end of each joke no matter how ridiculous it was and held no shame in sharing them with Suga. Admittedly maybe Suga didn’t want to try to stop Kuroo either, not so secretly enjoying the ridiculous things he would throw Suga’s way. His mannerisms quickly grew on Suga, probably due to his arrogance and strange humor reminding him of a more impish version of Tanaka. The fourth day that Suga returned Kuroo greeted him happily and addressed him very endearingly as ‘the cutest sugar fiend on the block’, seating him in the first open booth by the door. Much to his surprise (and perhaps a bit to his disappointment) Kuroo wasn’t bombarding him with horrible puns and jokes but instead begun asking Suga about himself. Caught off guard to say the least Suga tried giving him a briefing about what his job _had_ been previously and snuck in a few complaints about his meager apartment but before he knew it he ended up having a dire spell of word vomit.

Kuroo seemed to listen intently and found small moments to jump in and pull Suga’s leg, such as giving him poor and unreasonable ideas on how to fix his proclaimed possessed bed. Once or twice Suga had almost been distracted enough to forget he came to eat (which he may or may not have said aloud and received a brisk pinch on the arm from Kuroo for) but he certainly finished his French toast without fail. At the end of the meal Kuroo gave him an almost genuine farewell as he voiced anticipation of Suga returning once more. Suga dismissed the smug tone underneath his smooth invitation and left with a ridiculous grin on his face.

 

Upon returning to his poorly spoken about apartment Suga felt a reality crash upon him, Suga immediately feeling guilty for having not landed a proper job yet so easily he visited the café despite it all. Suga whipped out his laptop almost reflexively and booted up his searching again, trying to ignore he previous failings. Not too long into the search Suga found himself stuck trying to figure out why there were no daycare centers located a reasonable distance away, to which he distinctly remembered Kuroo had flat out suggested he try looking a bit farther out of town. Kuroo additionally warned him to be smart and avoid seemingly sketchy daycare centers after mentioning how the local police had busted a few child predators not too many months ago. Suga cringed at the mere thought of a fake child daycare center, trying to focus back to researching the area’s openings but only continued to have poor luck. It wasn't the first night he had tried pulling an all-nighter trying to research on his laptop and nagging himself in the back of his mind he _knew_ he’d more than likely scold Tanaka or Noya for doing such a thing.

The more intensely his eyes began to burn the more he contemplated taking a break until he realized it was easily past 2am and which point he _had_ to force himself to take a break. As he sluggishly crawled onto his bed he took a great amount of caution as not to trigger the mysterious dipping below him. Suga had gotten comfortable fairly quickly until he made the mistake of turning his hip and caused an abrupt dip directly under him.

Suga covered his face and let out a muffled groan. He could not replace his mattress soon enough.

 

 The next morning the weather was actually fairly clear out, making it a fairly pleasant Friday. As Suga hastily got dressed he contemplated between putting on clothes for jogging and actually switching up his morning routine or simply wrapping himself up in warm clothes and making a quick and very much needed trip to the grocery store. He opted for the latter knowing he’d regret saving the task for later and shuffled his way groggily down to the grocery store down the corner. Part of him instinctively almost took a sharp turn about halfway to the store and he had to stop himself- he almost headed down to the café by accident, which was a weird notion in itself. He hadn’t really walked down to it _that_ many times, had he? Suga shook his head in disbelief and made a proper beeline to the grocery store. Upon stepping into the store after activating a motion sensor door he triggered a gust of warm air directly to his face which was most likely meant to warm up customers upon entering. Suga however was not prepared in the least (in his defense, it was his first time going to this store in particular) and panicked, yelping and turning his face away only to quickly become observant that it was coming from above and the only way to stop it was to move. Suga waddled away quickly and rubbed his face, not sure if his face was burning up from the blast of warm air or his sudden awareness to a few people having witnessed his minor scene. He had probably not made the _best_ first impression at his local grocery store.

Suga removed his makeshift grocery list that he had put together on the back of an old receipt and scanned over it twice before crinkling it back up in his pocket and setting out to find said items. He hadn’t been able to obtain more than possibly three or four items on his list before turning into the dairy aisle and spotting a familiar silhouette from afar. Suga stopped dead in his tracks, not sure what to do. He opened his mouth to say something and wiggled his hands at his sides nervously but nothing came out. He squirmed in spot for at least a minute awkwardly and silently before they caught him in their peripheral while reaching down for a pack of Snackpack puddings. He whipped his head upward and gave Suga a very surprised then mischievous grin that Suga should have very well seen coming.

 “My dear French toast loving cutie, this the first time I've seen _you_ here,” Kuroo said in a singsong voice, slowly moving from a crouched position to a full standing pose.

Suga smiled and shrugged, casually ignoring Kuroo’s simultaneously sweet and unnecessarily bestowed nickname. He motioned at his own basket of various groceries and then glanced over at Kuroo’s, which was…well. Stuffed with an assortment of goods from the dairy aisle but to the point where he might as well have just toted the entire dairy aisle out of the store with him. Suga assumed that ridiculous amount of products must’ve been for the café- unless Kuroo was planning on having some sort of incredible dairy party which for some reason would not have surprised Suga in the least given Kuroo’s previous mention of his past eccentric party ideas. Suga nodded in the direction of the pack of pudding that Kuroo had almost picked up and snorted.

“I hope you don’t intend on stocking up on those like you’ve done for everything else in your basket,” Suga said teasingly and pointed at the Snackpack puddings that Kuroo had yet to actually pick up.

“Oh? Well, it’s not nice for you to judge my basket. If I want it to look like Noah’s Ark I will do so mister _sweet tooth_ ,” Kuroo mocked Suga and dramatically hugged his basket close to his chest as though it were an infant and then gazed down at the pudding packs as well before waving his hand dismissively and moving away from the shelf.

“No Noah’s Ark after all?”

“Not today,” Kuroo said plainly and pivoted so that he was facing Suga head on.

“Oh. By the way, I’m curious. Are you…shopping for the café?”

Kuroo raised an eyebrow curiously at Suga and motioned at his basket and then nodded. He huffed for a moment and leaned back in such a way that his weight was supported by nothing yet he didn't wobble or trip backwards. Suga considered taking a step back in case his pose backfired and Kuroo flailed dangerously before him, but nothing.

“Well. I don’t normally do the shopping for the café, it’s typically Bokuto’s job. “

“Ashen, kinda spiked up, bristled hair? The guy who works behind the mini bar?”

“Yeah, him. And he would be doing this but he has absolutely _zero_ impulse control when it comes to shopping unless his boyfriend’s with him but _he’s_ got an early shift and so…here _I_ am,” Kuroo said with a deflated voice and stood up properly only to slump right afterwards.

Suga frowned and nodded. There had been more times than Suga liked to count where responsibilities (namely those of Tanaka and Noya) had been bestowed upon him without much warning, so he could properly sympathize with Kuroo.

“Oh. Well I’m sorry that you’re stuck doing the shopping bu- _wait._ Aren’t you the owner of the café? Isn’t that your sort of job anyway?”

Kuroo stood up tall and a devilish grin curled over his lips and Suga swore he could feel a small wave of goosebumps pass over his arms for a brief moment. Suga stiffened up and turned his head, not sure if any of the other customers in the general vicinity were receiving the same vibe.

“Bokuto and I take turns. Which is a messy process in itself…oh! But. That’s not important at all. What _is_ though-“Kuroo perked up in the blink of an eye and leaned forward with a much less intimidating face toward him and with his index finger lightly tapped the tip of Suga’s nose (which startled Suga a fair amount, but nothing in comparison to his earlier experience with the store entrance), “- is if you’re coming today. Should I be expecting your company?”

Suga blinked and remained silent for a moment. Regardless of how he answered, he imagined that Kuroo was going to expect him to drop by. Due to Suga routinely dropping by day after day for the past five days it wasn’t like Kuroo was entirely _wrong_ to make that assumption. Not that Suga at that point would exactly be bothered by dropping by once more. Considering his body had almost directed him to the café earlier as well, it was a fair question.

“Oh. Um, well I…I mean, maybe? I should really get on finding a job, so there’s that and...” Suga tried not to groan but his lack of enthusiasm was showing fairly well through his posture which he hadn’t been aware of until Kuroo gestured at him with his free hand.

 In the blink of an eye Kuroo perked up as though he had come up with an ingenious idea (hopefully a more reasonable one than the time he suggested Suga hire an exorcist for his mattress problem), and then raised his index finger at Suga in preparation for what he probably thought was an excellent idea. Suga simply stood there and watched, not really sure what to expect.

“You know what you should do? You should come work at my café. You know where it is, we both know you like the food-“

Suga stepped back and braced himself, feeling as though Kuroo was messing with him. Kuroo paused at the sight of Suga bracing himself and raised an eyebrow at Suga curiously again before looking around to survey the aisle.

“What on earth are you doing that for? You look like you’re about to fight me. If you’re going to do so, first fix your stance for fuc-“

“What? I’m not- no, I’m not trying to start something you just- _you just suggested I work at your café_ ,” Suga reminded Kuroo of his own words in disbelief.

“Oh yeah, that. I definitely did.”

“And?”

Kuroo sighed and shrugged, then began to move past Suga but paused once he was shoulder to shoulder with him.

“And it’s an offer you can take up or not, your choice. I just thought you’d like it but if that’s not your thing then by all means turn me down. No biggie.”

“So that’s it. Just like that, you would give me a job?” Suga said flatly in disbelief.

“I don’t see why not. You seem pretty good with people from what I’ve seen from you and heard from Noya-“

“ _What did Noya say about me?”_ Suga hissed in a low tone unintentionally, wary of what number of things Noya could have mentioned.

Kuroo waved his hand dismissively and cleared his throat.

“ _Anywho_. You totally like our food so you’d make a great taste tester. Also, five bucks says you’d go from utterly adorable to completely _bangin’_ in like five seconds if you wore one of our special dress shirts,” Kuroo said with an especially catty grin and a large thumbs up to accompany it.

Suga tried opening his mouth multiple times to respond but he couldn’t quite figure out where to start. Ignoring Kuroo blatantly hitting on him, disbelief didn’t even begin to cover his feelings about Kuroo’s offer though as much as he slowly felt the initial shock pass…it wasn’t in all honestly _that_ bad an offer. Completely unexpected, uncalled for but still somehow not as bad as it could have been (considering it came from Kuroo, something told him it could’ve surely been a lot more outlandish). If Suga could get his hands already on a job at a children’s daycare center then he wouldn’t even have to think about turning Kuroo down. But instead, here he was.

Honestly contemplating working at a café for the waiter who had been serving him the whole past week. Unbelievable.

Suga finally opened his mouth and Kuroo raised a hand.

“No worries. You can just get back to me when you come by the café later,” Kuroo purred as he slunk past Suga quickly with another hasty thumbs up.

“What if I choose not to come by later?”

Kuroo was only a step away from making a sharp turn out of the aisle when he stopped just to glance back over at Suga with a painfully expectant look, not even needing to say a word. Suga huffed and rolled his eyes.

Okay, maybe Kuroo got him good that _once_.

 

After finishing up his shopping at the grocery store Suga went directly back to his apartment and unloaded his groceries into his fridge sluggishly. He was still processing his encounter with Kuroo a good twenty minutes afterwards, feeling a mix of conflict and confusion. If given the choice he would pick working with children in a heartbeat over working at that café, but given his luck as of late with finding a job he felt trapped. It was definitely a good offer and a convenient one at that but he couldn’t just up and give up on working with kids. He _definitely_ didn’t spend a few years in childhood development classes just to up and wait tables. Suga groaned and looked at the cat shaped clock in his apartment, snapping somewhere back into reality realizing it was now noon. The café was open for sure and though Suga was half dreading it, he had a bad feeling Kuroo was expecting him after all. He hadn’t wallowed in the feeling of possibly disappointing Kuroo for more than a minute before he caved and decided to visit the café once more. The trip to the café was slow and he could feel himself sulking along the way. Kuroo had been much too casual about the offer and if he was playing a trick on Suga after all, he was going to feel like a massive idiot. Mentally preparing himself for the worst, Suga opened the door to the café with a painfully held in breath.

Much to his surprise though, Kuroo didn’t come running up to greet him upon arrival. It gave Suga a moment to relax and adjust to a different feeling atmosphere- he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but something had changed. He peered around the café for a moment and was enjoying the pleasant mood of the café up until Kuroo popped out of nowhere and scared him half to death with the biggest grin Suga had yet to see. Suga managed to muffle his own yelp with his hands but that didn’t stop Kuroo from getting a good laugh out of him.

“I was wondering when you’d come. You almost completely missed the celebration, you French toast loving _dork_ ,” Kuroo teased him while pointing to the back of the café over by the mini bar where Noya and Bokuto were very visibly having a good time with a small crowd of waiters and waitresses. Suga blinked and hesitantly uncovered his mouth, raising an eyebrow at Kuroo curiously.

“A celebration? What are you celebrating?” Suga asked in a concerned tone, feeling wary of Kuroo.

Kuroo motioned for Suga to sit at a booth nearby the door and then clasped his hands together excitedly, leaning in dangerously close to Suga.

“I decided it was time that I gave Nishinoya a promotion, so today we’re celebrating as you can see,” Kuroo said with his pose he used to speak highly of himself, albeit more dramatically than necessary.

Suga perked up and smiled from ear to ear, suddenly bubbling up with excitement for Noya. He wasn’t sure off the top of his head how long Noya had been working at the café, but he knew that the promotion was definitely bound to be terrific news. Would Noya get a raise? Suga began secretly praying deep down for nothing but the best for Noya, having received a promotion. He hated to admit it, but he felt a bit like a proud parent. Noya would throw a fit for sure if he saw Suga getting bubbly over his achievement.

“Oh my, look at you. Beaming like a proud parent over here…”

Suga whipped his head around and even though he could feel his cheeks burning up in embarrassment, which did nothing to stop him from glaring at Kuroo for the remark. Kuroo merely shrugged and went to reach for his pocket notebook from his apron.

“This is why I asked if you were gonna come by, you know.” Kuroo said smoothly and Suga stopped glaring at him for a moment.

“The promotion?”

“Yup. You’re a friend of Nishinoya’s and I had a hunch that you’d want to be there to see him get revved up over something like this. Granted you came a little late and you missed his initial reaction- which, maybe it’s better that way because we had a minor accident involving party poppers, an explosion of powdered sugar and two shot glasses, _but_ ,” Kuroo took out his notebook and casually waved it side to side, “you came and that’s what matters. So.”

Suga relaxed for a moment and let out a small huff of breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding in. Maybe Kuroo wasn’t half as wicked as he led Suga to believe. Suga nodded and smiled brightly back at Kuroo. He opened his mouth to order when Kuroo pointed a pen at him.

“Which reminds me. Are you going to take me up on my offer? We’re like a little family here, you’d love it,” Kuroo purred as he leaned in dangerously close one more and Suga could undeniably see a twinkle in his eyes.

“Oh. Well, I mean I…I appreciate the offer. But working with children is just, you know,” Suga mumbled and perhaps felt a _little_ guilty turning him down but that failed to knock Kuroo down a peg.

“Well then, why don’t you just work here until you get a job elsewhere?”

Suga opened his mouth to protest but there wasn’t much of an argument he could put up to that. He glanced back over at Noya in the back with Bokuto and both of them were cheering over something. They looked happy enough working at the café and it wasn’t like Noya had told him horror tales about working there. Working at the café until he could achieve his greater goal of working with children- that was what he wanted, right? Suga exhaled deeply and started to slink back against the booth’s cushion and gave Kuroo an expectant look to which Kuroo only grinned wider. He had a bad feeling Kuroo was almost reading him like a book at that point.

“This is going to happen, isn’t it?”

“You tell me.”

Suga moaned quietly and flopped forward lightly onto the table, feeling the defeat sink in.

“You are so… _persistent_.” Suga mumbled, which earned him a very pleased expression from Kuroo.

Kuroo chuckled softly and shook his head, deliberately looking away from Suga as he began to saunter off.

“I told you earlier- you’d make a great taste tester, you’re good with people. Oh-“Kuroo glanced back over at Suga with a devilish grin once more mid-step “-and you’d look _incredibly_ hot in one of our special dress shirts.”

Suga covered his burning cheeks and tried to hold back a smile.

And there it was, Kuroo was undoubtedly back to his wicked self.

 

* * *

 

Noya’s week had been full of plenty of things from almost spraining his ankle trying to keep children from falling out of booths to patiently waiting on older couples that got a good, cruel kick out of finding he wasn't in high school despite his height but today-

 _Today_ was undeniably a day to cherish, he found himself humming to himself under his breath not too long after Kuroo decided to spring a surprise promotion on Noya first thing that Friday morning. Noya was all for surprises, but a surprise _promotion_? If the café hadn’t been open for business Noya would’ve considered hopping over a table or something (although more along the lines of something else because Kuroo would kick his ass for trying to parkour inside the café again) to use up all of the excessive energy that he found summoned inside himself upon hearing the news.

Much to Noya’s surprise, Kuroo had managed to surprise _everyone_ with the news of Noya’s promotion which he found to be pretty astonishing after taking into consideration that Bokuto included didn’t know-and Bokuto was Kuroo’s _best_ friend. Upon hearing the news Noya could’ve almost sworn that Bokuto was almost more excited about the news than Noya himself, definitely noted by Bokuto’s enthusiasm for throwing a special something for Noya. He appreciated the sentiment and considered declining his offer to avoid any silly schemes that might make Kuroo change his mind and take away his promotion just as quick as he had given it. However Bokuto refused to take no as an answer-

Three party poppers, two ounces of scattered powdered sugar and two broken shot glasses later Noya found that Bokuto’s idea of celebrating was perhaps a _tad_ bit different than his own. Not that he didn’t appreciate the good laugh both of them got out of it up until the two of them had to consequently clean up the mess (although Bokuto did manage to make even more of a mess in cleaning up the powdered sugar somehow, but seeing as it was the edible equivalent to glitter he almost pitied the guy). After tidying up Noya found himself surrounded by an array of fellow staff members, all of them congratulating him on his promotion. He had a strong feeling that at least half of them were doing it out of wariness to what Kuroo would do if they _didn’t_ , but Noya disregarded the thought of him doing anything besides jokingly scolding them.

He didn’t seem to be in much of a mood to do anything too detrimental.

The group of staff seemed to disperse hastily upon Kuroo’s arrival back at the mini bar, members scattering back to wherever they were meant to be. Noya immediately spotted a devious smirk on his face which was plenty of an explanation as to the scattering of staff because that signature look did not usually mean virtuous things to come. More than likely, he was playing dirty at _something_ and Noya just as likely wanted little to nothing to do with it so he began to pivot away as though he knew nothing of the sort. Noya even considered slowly creeping away to wait on a table but just as he inched a foot out to cautiously slink away he felt a sudden pat on his back and froze.

 

“How are you enjoying your promotion so far?” Kuroo asked in a surprisingly relaxed tone.

Noya turned his head around and smiled genuinely. He hadn’t really experienced any of the perks of the promotion yet, but his morning had been relatively pleasant between the disastrous celebration and getting a long break to relax. Admittedly he was probably ready to go back to work- it wasn’t that he was in a hurry to start cleaning up maple syrup explosions off the floor per se, but he was getting a little anxious to do _something_ other than just idle in the back of the café- and he wouldn’t have been surprised Kuroo had sensed it somehow.

“Yeah, definitely. I think I’m ready to go back to work though so I’m just gonna check on the tables over there,” Noya found himself excusing himself away in a far from inconspicuous tone.

“Oh, well that’s good to hear. By any chance, would you happen to know your upcoming schedule for this weekend?”

Noya tried to hold back a frown and shrugged. Kuroo gestured his hand loosely through the air, looking over at Bokuto ever so plainly.

“Well, I just thought that since you’ll be helping make dishes from now on it would make sense for you to actually learn the recipes. Bokuto, what does your schedule look-“

Noya sucked in a loud breath of air which certainly started Kuroo (that was quite the unintentional first) and began bouncing on his heels, trying not to actually spring around in place. He was going to actually _make_ dishes? Noya had worked at the café long enough to understand Kuroo’s standards for served dishes, knowing good and well that Kuroo would really only let people he trusted get their hands dirty so to speak in his kitchen. Noya generally only saw perhaps Kuroo and Bokuto in the kitchen working up a storm and if Noya said he wasn’t enticed at all by the idea of joining their small circle, he’d be lying and poorly at that.

“I’m free whenever this weekend,” Noya spat out quicker than his mind could process, not bothering to actually think about his availability.

Kuroo gave him his signature catty grin and Noya merely ignored the brief jolt of goosebumps, continuing to bounce on his heels to keep himself from combusting on the spot. Kuroo nodded solemnly and turned to Bokuto who was silently doing miniature fist bumps into the air while beaming happily right at Noya.

“Wonderful. Come by...this Saturday then? Come at let’s say, 3.”

 “Wait, Saturday? _Dude_ , that’s like Akaashi’s _one_ free day,” Bokuto began to whine, slumping over the mini bar’s countertop slowly and giving Kuroo a pleading stare to which Kuroo sighed heavily and shrugged with just as much lack in enthusiasm.

“Alright Yuu, it’s gonna be just you and I this Saturday. Bokuto-“Kuroo waggled his index finger at him, shooting him a surprisingly soft glance“-I love you man so I’m gonna let it slide. _Next_ _time_ though.”

Bokuto sprung upright and grinned from ear to ear, giving Kuroo two eager thumbs up. Noya couldn’t help but snort to himself, seeing his own boss and co-worker being goofy right in front of him (not that Bokuto wasn’t already like that but to see Kuroo be a softie was quite the sight itself). Granted him and Tanaka probably weren’t too much better, though he wasn’t entirely sure if either of them had gone so far as to profess some sort of bond since it had always just kinda been there since sometime in high school. Noya shrugged and cheerily started to walk away, still feeling the giddiness of news from earlier flowing through his system.

 

Noya couldn’t have spent more than perhaps an hour or two of doing normal service (which meant snapping out of his pleasant morning buzz and returning to preventing toddler disasters and maple syrup explosions on the floor) before Kuroo decided to beckon him over once more, with similar discreetness to previously that morning when he had surprised him. After having dealt with at least a handful of customers unnecessarily making bigger messes in attempt to clean up after themselves _for_ him, Noya was plenty ready for at the very least a breather. Kuroo lacked a bit of enthusiasm in comparison to how he summoned Noya previously, but Noya remained quiet and came as requested.

“Yuu, I have a task to entrust you with,” Kuroo warned in a low tone.

Noya nodded obediently and stood up tall, feeling a tinge wary of Kuroo’s thumb which pointed at the café door. He tried not to screw his face into something unpleasant as he couldn’t help but feel confused. Noya had _definitely_ witnessed Kuroo come in earlier with groceries so it was unlikely that he was being sent out on a shopping trip. Perhaps Kuroo wanted him to pick up something? It wasn’t like there were any other nearby food stores around the block besides the store and going back to his previous point about seeing Kuroo bringing in groceries-

Well, he simply had no idea what to expect. Kuroo must’ve read his mind and placed a hand on his shoulder, looking him dead-on.

“I need you to go across the street and tell them I sent you, they have a package for me.”

 

Noya opened his mouth to ask for at least a million different clarifications but nothing managed to come out as Kuroo flashed him a devious grin. Kuroo gave him a big thumbs up and patted him on the back, slowly walking away. Noya shook his head in disbelief, knowing there really wasn’t any room for discussion. He huffed to himself and threw on his jacket, hastily leaving the café in attempt to get the task over with as painlessly as possible. The street lacked a proper crosswalk but that did nothing to deter Noya from jaywalking across in a brisk jog, but he found himself almost at a screeching halt before the entrance to the store. He sluggishly pushed his feet forward, his face burning up in sheer embarrassment.

He hadn’t ever really been inside a flower shop before due to his lack of reason to be in one (namely thanks to his history of girlfriends, lack thereof), and felt waves upon waves of immature and blatantly unreasonable shame crash upon him. Noya rubbed his face aggressively, hoping to rub away the swelling heat in his cheeks as he finally pushed forward and entered the shop. It wasn’t nearly as embarrassing as he had imagined upon actually entering the shop but was immediately instead caught off guard by the potency of the flowers, the sickeningly sweet smell burning his nostrils and making him consider in a moment of brief panic if he had any allergies to flowers- not that knowing such a thing would help him at any rate, but if he died he _definitely_ didn’t want to go out in a flower shop.

 He scurried past the front displays and found himself quickly lost in something that was something more along the lines of a flower and herb related version of a home depot rather than a quaint little flower shop. He bit back a groan and started exploring through what felt like aisles upon aisles of tea related items until he stumbled upon what he assumed was a checkout register. He peered around and from afar he spotted what he assumed was an employee from the green apron being worn. Noya almost charged at full speed down to them, dodging meticulously through the small crowd of other customers which earned him a few dirty glances. He was maybe a good yard away and fully intended to plant his feet down and stop right next to the employee. Well, until the employee abruptly pivoted around only a few seconds before Noya could come to a clean screeching halt.

Noya panicked and let his legs collapse beneath him, landing him _hard_ on his rear-the flooring was more unforgiving than expected. Noya disregarded the other customers giving him an odd glance as he slowly rubbed around his tailbone and for a moment he _swore_ he felt someone towering over him, and he dared to glance up to lock eyes with whomever was hovering over him.

 

It was the employee and for a split second he couldn’t tell whether his heart dropped or skipped upon meeting his eyes.

Noya studied him thoroughly from his staggering height to his poorly hidden sun-kissed skin, definitely needing more than one full look over to really grasp what he was staring at. Between the green apron and the long sleeved shirt that was lazily half-rolled up along the sleeves he could spy some seriously well-defined muscles- maybe he was athletic or something? The employee felt out of place, being this ginormous dude in a place full of…well, delicate things like flowers. In his mind he knew that if he stood up he’d be a painful amount shorter than the employee (not that he wasn’t taller than a number of other customers, but Noya could tell good and well that he had _easily_ a foot on him in the height department). This giant of an employee was bent over Noya and was trying to in some sort of frenzy speak to Noya but Noya for the life of him couldn’t quite make out the details, no matter how hard he focused on his lips (which accidentally brought to his attention to the scarce amount of stubble along his chin). The employee’s deep caramel eyes darted around as he anxiously began gesturing around Noya, his face scrunched up nervously in concern as he continued to ask Noya things but he wasn’t making much sense. Noya simply tilted his head and raised an eyebrow, finally trying to snap out of his momentary daze when he realized that he was still just planted on the middle of the floor.

 

Oh. _That_ was probably what the poor dude was freaking out about.

 

Noya slowly climbed back up onto his feet and dusted himself off (admittedly he may have tossed himself to the ground a little harder than necessary and he could feel the sting from his less than graceful landing), then looked back up at the employee who was frozen in place. Just as he had expected, the employee was at least a foot taller than him- which, Noya standing at 5’2”, it wasn’t too difficult to be taller than. Noya snorted in amusement at the ridiculously tall employee and hastily scurried around him, just a _little_ bit guilty of checking out the employee.

Noya had played plenty of volleyball in high school and he got out and jogged plenty- he even ate a normal diet and nothing he did ever gave him a body like that. It pained him to be jealous of a body like that. He huffed and darted around him once or twice more, admiring the employee’s body until he had a brief moment of self-awareness and stopped mid-circle.

No doubt about it, the employee had to be looking at him as though he were crazy. Noya glanced upward to meet his glance again but rather than a panicked expression he was met with a bashful look, his cheeks progressively becoming more flushed the longer Noya stared him down. It wasn’t long though before the employee averted his gaze anywhere but on Noya, reminding him very vaguely of the pudding-head kid that frequented the café-

And then it hit him, his reason for even being in the store in the first place. Noya slowly approached the employee and tugged lightly at the corner of his green apron which earned him a small peek from the employee.

“I’m here on behalf of Kuroo-“

The employee stiffened up his posture immediately at the mention of Kuroo’s name and stared back at Noya with an intense gaze, his deep caramel eyes slowly burning a hole through Noya the longer he stood there. Noya was almost speechless for a moment.

“-…to pick up. A thing. Or…something,” Noya started to mumble as the employee’s gaze softened up.

 For a moment Noya almost had to clutch his chest to make sure he wasn’t imagining it.

His heart  _definitely_ skipped a beat.

 

* * *

 

Asahi tried exhaling deeply in an attempt to compose himself.

He really hadn’t been anticipating his break to be anything but peaceful (the flower shop wasn’t exactly bustling with anything but older women and passive aggressive hipsters) and yet, here he was staring down at this shorter fellow who only a few seconds ago had nearly crashed right into him head on. Asahi was definitely appreciative of him being ambitious enough to brake himself only seconds before by forcing himself to fall, though it had nearly given Asahi a miniature heart attack to witness. He sprung back to his feet not long after Asahi tried to check on him and circled Asahi a number of times, but Asahi couldn’t even look at him properly at that point from the sheer embarrassment of being stared down so intensely that his cheeks started to burn up. He _knew_ he was going to have to look at him eventually but feeling especially anxious in the moment Asahi instead continued to avoid his gaze. No doubt about it the other customers were watching Asahi but he disregarded them to the best of his ability and worried more about what to do with the intense fellow.

Asahi snapped out of his shell for a moment as he felt a small tug on his work apron. He peeked over slowly at the smaller fellow, meeting his troubled gaze. He nervously gulped, feeling a bit responsible for the look the smaller fellow wore.

“I’m here on behalf of Kuroo-“

Asahi felt his body stiffen up, a sharp chill running down his spine at the mention of Kuroo. He couldn’t help his rigid posture in the least but he managed to hold back a shudder. Asahi wasn’t afraid of Kuroo by any means, but he knew well enough about Kuroo’s to be wary of his antics. He was mischievous, maybe a bit overbearing if you allowed him the space- and all too cunning for his own good if you rubbed him the wrong way. Asahi felt no right in voicing his concern for the smaller fellow knowing he himself was on peculiar terms with Kuroo, though it wasn’t exactly a genuine concern for the stranger’s health or so as it was just a genuine general concern. Kuroo’s connections to people in the past from what Asahi had seen weren’t always so pleasant and clean cut, distinctly recalling the time Kuroo was being hounded down by his ex through the tea related aisle while screaming profanities at the top of his lungs.

 “-…to pick up. A thing. Or…something.” The smaller fellow mumbled under his breath and Asahi flinched, finding himself teetering back into reality at the soft tone.

 

The fellow was only there to pick up some flowers for Kuroo.

Asahi let out a heavy sigh of relief and smiled, feeling like a serious idiot. His cheeks ignited with the same heat as before and he reached around, scratching the back of his head but not furiously enough to undo his messy bun. The smaller fellow perked up with a pleased expression, and tugged at his apron albeit lightly, a few more times. Asahi couldn’t quite put his finger on it but there was something surprisingly harmless and childish about the way he continued to tug at the apron like he needed something. His face said he was determined (Asahi was worried about him getting too intense once more) and the longer Asahi watched in not quite awe so much as amusement, the harder he had to hold back a laugh.

 _He's astonishingly cute._  

“Hey! You know the manager or something, right?” He asked in a loud voice, though it was definitely more of an accusation than a question.

Asahi cleared his throat and scratched his all too toasty cheek, shrugging plainly.

“Um, well. I’m the owner of the store, _actually_ , so…I, um…I mean-“

Asahi could tell although he had gone quiet, the smaller fellow was only a few seconds from bursting as Asahi took note of him bouncing on his heels. He wasn’t sure whether to back up or prepare himself to legitimately be knocked over. Either way, the smaller fellow was very unmistakably excited and not as much to Asahi’s surprise he hopped in closer and began gesturing about wildly. Asahi jerked backwards in response to his forwardness but that didn’t make him settle down in the least.

“Ah, that’s great! You must know what sort of thing Kuroo wants me to pick up, right?” The smaller fellow said with _way_ too much enthusiasm for someone who had zero idea what they were picking up.

Asahi nodded and opened his mouth to offer to retrieve him the flowers but then the smaller fellow threw his hand out to Asahi, averting his gaze elsewhere for a few seconds before glancing over his shoulder back at Asahi.

“For the record, I’m Yuu. Nishinoya Yuu,” he mumbled and jutted his hand out once more, to which Asahi lightly gripped his hand and shook it.

“Asahi Azumane.” He responded and let go of his hand, to which the smaller fellow- _Nishinoya_ , rather, pulled his hand back to his side with a pout.

For a moment Asahi he _swore_ he heard Nishinoya mumble something under his breath about Asahi being really cool and that was all it took for a burning trail of heat to flare up from his head to toes, leaving an agonizing rush of warmth to migrate to his face. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and scurried forward and past Nishinoya in hopes of playing off his awkward state and Nishinoya trailed not too far behind him. Asahi nervously cut through a few aisles before stopping at a back counter- not that they actually used it for any actual transactions.

Yachi had suggested that they implement a small café but Asahi wasn’t really heavily invested in cooking (although he lived alone so it wasn’t like he was necessarily _unskilled_ in cooking) so until he found a proper use for the back counter it was merely a gathering place for newly arrived plants and flowers alike. This month Kuroo hadn’t asked for a specific flower as usual, instead requesting to be surprised- Kuroo requested to be surprised _every_ month. Asahi sighed and let out a heavy breath, taking a quick inventory check of the newest flower pots gathered before him. There was really no wrong flower to pick though more than once Asahi had admittedly contemplated sending Kuroo some weeds as a gag gift but out of concern for him to return the favor _much_ less favorably, he dismissed the idea. Asahi turned around to ask Nishinoya for a second opinion, doubting that he really knew the flowers apart to begin with. Upon turning to face Nishinoya he found him most definitely staring at him intensely once more. Asahi wasn’t as taken aback by the intense leer as he had been the first time and merely fidgeted under his stare.

 

“Asahi, do you play sports?” Nishinoya asked while all too curiously peering over at Asahi.

Asahi shrugged plainly. He hadn’t heavily invested time into playing volleyball since perhaps sometime in college, but he wasn’t completely out of shape in thanks to his routine morning jogs.

“Um…I _used_ to play volleyball. Wing spiker,” Asahi mumbled and Nishinoya bounced eagerly in place upon hearing his response.

“Ah, that’s awesome! I used to be a libero.” Nishinoya stated with a puffed out chest, posing proudly and pointing at himself.

Asahi couldn’t help but snigger at least a _little_ at him, admiring his relentless source of enthusiasm. Nishinoya grinned widely and peeked around Asahi, pointing at the collection of potted plants behind him on the counter. Asahi gave a small ‘oh’ and motioned at the plants jokingly in a frivolous manner as though he were a model on a cheap game show, showing off a showcase item to be won. A hearty laugh escaped Nishinoya’s lips and Asahi’s heart skipped a beat _hard_.

He opened his mouth to say something as did Nishinoya once he caught his breath after laughing.

“So that’s what Kuroo sent me over for? _Flowers_?” Nishinoya said with a hint of disbelief under his breath.

Asahi plainly shrugged and put his hands at his side.

“That’s Kuroo for you,” Asahi stated flatly which subsequently made Nishinoya’s face twist into a pout.

 _Oh_. Asahi panicked for a brief moment, wondering if he had crossed a line in regards to joking about Kuroo. He forced a smile and waved his hands apologetically in front of himself in a frenzy.

“I-I mean…he’s not a bad guy. Um. He just…” Asahi opened his mouth with the intention of finding a good quality of Kuroo’s to mention but all he could think of off the bat was a handful of times Kuroo pulled his leg, so he chose to leave it at that.

“He’s my boss. Back at the café, I mean. Sometimes he’s a little…oh!”

Nishinoya perked up and bounced on his heels and waved his hands about excitedly- Asahi almost felt dizzy just watching him.

“Oh! But Kuroo is definitely not a bad guy. This morning I came into work and I was like, _oh man it’s a Friday_ , because you know how Fridays are- and then he _totally_ popped a surprise promotion on me. It was so cool and I _just-_ like, I dunno man, he just…” Nishinoya told him zealously, his hands gesturing wildly through the air.

“Oh, you got a promotion from him? Congratulations Nishino-“

“Noya,” he corrected Asahi with a proud snort.

“-… _Noya_ ,” Asahi repeated after him slowly, “again, congrats.”

Noya went silent and for a moment he almost swore Noya’s cheeks became slightly tinted but it wasn’t a long lasting sight as Noya sharply turned his gaze away from Asahi and waved his hand dismissively.

“Ah, thanks. I should…oh, you know what? I still haven’t picked up Kuroo’s flowers. He’ll probably throw a fit if I’m not back soon so I should definitely get on that and um…” Noya said hastily, scratching the back of his head and slowly looking back at Asahi who nodded.

Asahi had gotten a bit too caught up in joking around that he had almost completely forgotten about actually giving him the flowers. He turned and picked up a potted white petunia, offering it to Noya- who made an awful scrunched up face as though Asahi was handing him trash. It almost wounded Asahi’s pride a bit to see that sort of reaction. Petunias were pretty and being fall their bloom time was at peak, how was his choice not satisfactory? Noya slowly took the potted plant, holding it up and inspecting it from numerous angles as though he were checking to see if it were counterfeit. Asahi restrained a huff and readied his hands in case of Noya dropping the potted plant in the midst of his unnecessary investigation.

“It’s a petunia. Since it’s fall, they bloom really well at this time,” Asahi told him and not to his surprise, Noya’s eyes lit up.

“Petunia, huh? That’s cool…” Noya mumbled as he started to space out while turning the potted plant for the umpteenth time which worried Asahi.

He _really_ didn’t want to see the poor plant get accidentally dropped right before his own eyes. He had raised his flowers like children and it would hurt to see it go to waste. Asahi warily returned his hands to his sides and Noya flinched-

 “Oh, right! I have to get back. _Man, Kuroo’s gonna kick my ass_ …!” Noya yelped and dangerously tucked the potted petunia under his arm and began to make a break for the shop entrance.

Asahi cringed and at how he held the potted petunia, Noya’s grip similar to if he were grasping onto a football. He had bolted away too fast for Asahi to even stop him but that didn’t deter him from jogging after him, trying to watch from the front window looking out if Noya was going to make it back safely with the gift. He saw Noya take a full turn from the sidewalk all the way back to the flower shop entrance with the same awful grip on the poor potted petunia, breathing a bit heavy much to Asahi’s surprise. He pointed to Asahi with his free hand and grinned at him from ear to ear.

“ _Thankyouverymuchfortheflowerand_ -“Noya said quickly, his words slurring together in his haste,”-…you should come by sometime.”

 

Asahi blinked at him silently a few times, making sure to re-run Noya’s words through his mind once or twice more.

“Pardon?” Asahi said quietly and swallowed nervously.

Noya gripped even tighter onto the gift and posed proudly as he had done earlier, making Asahi feel a strange mix of concern and fascination.

“What I said was- you should come by the café sometime. I just remembered that Kuroo’s gonna teach me how to make stuff, so you should come by and I’ll totally make you something,” Noya announced with a proud nod.

“Oh. _Oh._ Well, I mean, I just...I-I…” Asahi tried his best not to get tongue-tied but there was little helping it.

Asahi was certainly touched by the offer and couldn’t quite figure out the right words to express just that. He hadn’t visited the café in ages and Kuroo would scold him no doubt about it for not coming by sooner. In the back of his mind he felt a bit tormented in the struggle between facing Kuroo but then there was seeing Noya.

 _Then there’s seeing Noya_ , Asahi reran his own words back to himself.

His resolve was always on the weaker end of the spectrum, but this- he should’ve been ashamed of himself.

 Asahi attempted to open his mouth once more but Noya jolted up so suddenly that he lost his window of opportunity in the blink of an eye.

“ _It would be nice to see your face in there sometime_.” Noya blurted out loudly and darted back out of the store even faster than he had the first time- which Asahi hadn’t even considered to be possible but was quickly proven wrong.

Noya hastily ran across the street with the same awful handling of the gift and just as he seemed to be in the homestretch, right at the entrance to the café-

And he peeked back over his shoulder briefly at the flower shop one last time before giddily entering the café. Asahi released a heavy sigh he had been restraining and bent over forward, clutching his chest.

While his resolve was weak, he almost swore in that moment his heart was weaker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How hella sketchy is Kuroo exactly, we just can't say for sure.  
> Are you a fan of glass heart Asahi because I know I am.
> 
> ヾ(๑╹ヮ╹๑)ﾉ”  
> Additionally, bless all of your little souls for reading this far.


	4. Your awkwardness shows

Daichi often thought of himself as a patient man.

His Friday morning had started off slow with a number of incoming patients dropping by for routine checkups which was nothing troublesome until a handful of patients had to be reminded of vaccines- why on earth parents could not simply comply and vaccinate their children in order to extend  their children's lifespan was beyond him. The only thing that was a greater test of patience was the number of false alarm pages in which sent him unnecessarily running down and back through hallways, each false alarm being corrected _after_ he had journeyed the way. Daichi had to remember to take small breaks during the influx of patients (though Ennoshita and Akaashi took turns forcefully removing him for breaks every now and again), as his tolerance level for patients who thought they knew better than he about their own health even if they had clearly come into the hospital asking for his assistance was not endless. He loved what he did but the people he had to help were a much different story.

 By the time noon rolled around Daichi was ready to take a lunch break and he had himself mentally equipped to do just that until he found Ennoshita chatting up something of a storm over by a reception desk, leaning over all too casually as he spoke to the other nurses across the desk. Daichi contemplated leaving Ennoshita to carry on chatting but then it occurred to Daichi that in theory if Daichi bought him food now the chances of Ennoshita leaving passive aggressive sticky notes throughout the apartment later were greatly reduced.

He approached him from the left until he was in Ennoshita’s peripheral (Ennoshita had shot him a momentary side-glance with little subtlety) and nodded at him to which Ennoshita waved a hand at the fellow nurses as he pivoted ever so slightly to face Daichi.

Ennoshita looked half-awake as always as he nodded back at Daichi.

“What’s up?” Ennoshita asked curiously while tilting his head ever so slightly to the side.

“I’m about to take a lunch break. My treat, if you’re interested,” Daichi said with a small shrug.

A small and delicate small curved over Ennoshita’s lips, his face looking ever so slightly more alert at the mention of food. Daichi snorted and gave Ennoshita one swift and hearty smack to the shoulder before continuing down the hallway and past him. He hadn’t made it more than a few feet away before Daichi could hear Ennoshita’s less than graceful footsteps trailing behind him. Daichi considered slowing down a considerable amount on the way to the cafeteria out of general courtesy for Ennoshita, knowing that his leg had nearly given out on him earlier that morning (and at a poor time too, Daichi and he had barely gotten ready that morning before Ennoshita had a crippling spell and nearly made the two of them late for their shifts at the hospital). Luckily as he glanced warily back over his shoulder Ennoshita was keeping up at a normal pace- though perhaps his stride was _slightly_ wobbly if he stared hard enough but Daichi knew better than to tease the poor boy.

 

After spending an unnecessarily long time in line to purchase a less than subpar tasting sandwich along with Ennoshita’s pathetic excuse for a salad they ended up sitting down at a more bustling area of the cafeteria- Daichi didn’t bother wasting his breath scolding him for not eating something more substantial, knowing too well Ennoshita would have a perfectly blunt and accurate retaliation in regards to Daichi’s own poor eating habits. As they sat down Daichi opened his mouth a few times to say something and nothing came out as he couldn’t quite figure out what to talk about. Despite their minor age gap and status as roommates, Daichi couldn’t help but feel as though there was still some distance between them. He sighed and opened his mouth once more.

“So, _Chikara_ ,” Daichi said in a low and serious tone, “…how’s your knee doing? You’re not in any pain, are you?”

Ennoshita perked up and gave him a minuscule smile.

“I’m still a little wobbly, but thank you for asking,” Ennoshita said in a pleasant tone, clearly appreciative of Daichi checking on him- even if Daichi keeping this boy from completely destroying his own knee was a routine task (no thanks to Ennoshita’s resistance to taking care of himself beyond wearing a knee brace, regardless of Daichi’s constant nagging).

Daichi rolled his eyes ever so slightly at him to which Ennoshita shrugged.

“How about you, Daichi? How are you doing?” Ennoshita asked in a soft voice, his eyes darting back and forth between his salad and Daichi as he incessantly stabbed it with his fork.

“Oh. Well I guess I’ve been alright but there was that one mother earlier who lectured me about how vaccines are _unsafe_ and I just-“Daichi leaned forward onto the table and groaned, furiously running both hands through his short locks until they felt sufficiently messy, “-…I don’t understand how on earth I’m supposed to be professional and not judge her parenting skills when she can’t even _just_ \- how hard is it to vaccinate your child? She just…I don’t even understand,” Daichi said in a mildly dejected voice, lowering his head.

 Ennoshita slowly reached over and lightly grazed Daichi’s head with his fingertips, tapping ever so gently in an effort to give Daichi something of a reassuring pat on the head. Daichi glanced up at him and shot him an expectant look.

“You shouldn’t worry so much or else you’ll wake up with a full head of white hairs,” Ennoshita stated flatly, removing his hand.

Daichi gave him a deadpan look.

“You’re too blunt,” Daichi warned him in a low voice.

Ennoshita hummed under his breath and averted his gaze, focusing on something in the cafeteria behind Daichi before looking back at him slowly.

“Speaking of all things blunt,” Ennoshita began in a much softer voice, a slight hint of nervousness hiding under his breath as he exhaled slowly,” I have a proposition for you.”

“Oh?”

“It may or may not involve you joining me at a club tonight. Also…”

Daichi squinted hard at Ennoshita who lowered his head.

“Go on,” Daichi instructed him firmly as he gestured at him.

Ennoshita bit his lip and stared down at the table, grinding his fork in and _especially_ rigid manner.

“…It may involve being around Tanaka and some of his friends.”

Daichi’s shoulders sunk down and he nearly failed to hold back a hard scowl at Ennoshita. Daichi didn’t frequent clubs and the like much simply because he wasn’t interested in that sort of scene and the type of people associated with it, but if Ennoshita were to invite him (which was a rare occurrence in itself since that poor boy was _much_ too innocent) then Daichi found himself unable to turn him down. Ennoshita had probably been just as aware of Daichi’s lack of resolve when it came to turning him down, but he remained silent and only peeked up at Daichi who at that point probably had something of an awful expression plastered across his face based upon Ennoshita’s reaction.

 

He wasn’t bothered by the idea of going to the club as he was, simply put, Tanaka.

Daichi worked at the hospital long enough to cross paths with more than a handful of patients in which he almost swore he just couldn’t physically muster up the patience to deal with. Tanaka, however well intended his actions which nearly landed him in their hospital all too frequently were, was simply too much for Daichi. At their first meeting Daichi had considered him to be something of an outstanding citizen after hearing how apparently Tanaka had hurt himself in attempt to assist some victims in a car accident not too far off from his repair shop. Daichi remembered having wanted to praise the man greatly for his efforts as he had done an excellent job- until Daichi finally met the overly boisterous and unnecessarily rowdy fellow. Although it was a mystery how Tanaka had been so unfazed at the least by the whole ordeal, what concerned Daichi the most was his personality. Following his first visit to the hospital, Tanaka made his appearance in the hospital more than a number of times and each visit usually ended with him having to be scolded for flirting too heavily with nurses, trying to fight other patients or needing to lower his voice. Truthfully speaking many of the other doctors felt the same sort of disdain toward him, going so far as to try and hand him off-

And then there was Ennoshita, who could handle him with ease.

How on earth Ennoshita could possibly handle Tanaka was a mystery but Daichi didn’t dare to question it. In fact, Daichi almost encouraged it as it made procedures and such about a thousand times easier to get done when Tanaka wasn’t trying to pick on everyone around him. Ennoshita swore endlessly that there was something admirable about Tanaka in the way he cared for his friends and how he meant well even if he wasn’t smart enough to figure out how to _not_ hurt himself in the process. Daichi didn’t mind if Ennoshita and Tanaka had become friends as it made things easier around the hospital aside from the downright issue of Tanaka frequenting their department a bit too frequently for everyone’s taste. Well, maybe not _everyone’s_ taste Daichi reminded himself as he recalled Ennoshita discreetly sharing his something of a crush on Tanaka with Daichi. If Ennoshita wanted to have a crush on another man then that was really none of Daichi’s business in the least-

But that by no means stopped Daichi in the least from distrusting Tanaka all the more as he imagined him accidentally harming Ennoshita, especially by accident.

 Daichi let out an annoyed grunt and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“What time?” Daichi mumbled gruffly which quite visibly made Ennoshita brim with as much happiness as his half-awake expression would allow.

 

Much to Daichi’s expectations, his shift at the hospital ran fairly longer than necessary which left him with just enough energy to socialize for the sake of Ennoshita. Daichi didn’t look forward to going to the club, no matter how many times Ennoshita promised to be the designated driver for the night (Ennoshita was a surprisingly good driver, but that didn’t help to ease his anticipation of Tanaka in the least). After their shifts ended neither of them bothered to change into something more appropriate which wasn’t a problem for Daichi in his dress clothes so much as it was for Ennoshita who wore his nurse scrubs and stuck out like a sore thumb. Even with his slightly over-sized jacket and the dimmed lights, there was no denying that Ennoshita stuck out with his mint pants. Daichi almost pitied him for the attention he drew to himself but just as the two of them had started to settle down over by the bar itself Daichi heard an all too familiar howl from the back of the room.

It took all Daichi had not to give Ennoshita a dry look.

“Oi, oi, oi- look what the cat dragged in, “Tanaka hollered much too loudly for Daichi’s taste as he approached them with a snaggletooth grin.

Daichi raised an eyebrow at Tanaka and contemplated inquiring just how many drinks he had consumed but he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know the exact number, assuming Tanaka himself had been counting. Ennoshita on the other hand got up faced Tanaka head-on and frowned.

“You’re being unnecessary,” Ennoshita pointed out with a slight undertone of sharpness that caught even Daichi a bit off guard-

And just like that Tanaka’s expression lightened up and turned to something much more pleasant (or as pleasant as his face would get) as he scratched the back of his head through his beanie. He mumbled a small apology under his breath and gestured excitedly. Just like that, Ennoshita had calmed-at least to _some_ degree the hot mess that was indeed Tanaka.

Daichi was almost proud of him for a second, wondering if his own firmness had rubbed off on Ennoshita.

“Daichi, everyone else is over there in the back _so_ ,” Ennoshita reminded Daichi as he snapped back into reality for a moment.

 

Daichi held back a huff and followed closely behind Ennoshita who was following Tanaka like a small duckling. Upon arriving at the back of the room one of Tanaka’s equally hyper friends greeted Daichi and Ennoshita. Daichi had seen him only a few times and luckily only by means of him escorting Tanaka to the hospital or visiting him if said injury was nasty enough to keep Tanaka down for more than ten minutes. After the friend introduced himself then focused his attention back onto Tanaka who was pulling up a chair or two for Daichi and Ennoshita. Ennoshita sat himself closer to the corner of the table with Tanaka and his friend Nishinoya (which was probably for the better) which left Daichi ever so slightly out of their atmosphere. He started to get out of his seat to fetch himself some sort of drink but just as Daichi rose to his feet to leave he bumped less than elegantly into a smaller fellow. In a matter of moments Daichi and the fellow both found themselves awkwardly gawking at each other for a few seconds before looking away in unison. Daichi scratched lightly at the back of his neck where he felt heat surge to, daring to look back at the fellow who looked equally embarrassed at his own lack of awareness to where he had been going. Daichi opened his mouth to apologize but then the fellow looked past him with a horrified expression and gestured nervously, quickly becoming more flustered as the seconds passed.

“I’m sorry, I just-“the smaller fellow whimpered in a sweet voice but then much to Daichi’s shock his expression twisted into something sharp enough to give even Daichi goosebumps as he leered right past him, “- Tanaka, put Noya down _right_ this second.”

Daichi glanced over his shoulder to see Tanaka rolling his eyes as he released his grip on Nishinoya’s sides. Daichi snorted to himself and for a split second Daichi almost admired the smaller fellow’s ability to discipline Tanaka, his physical appearance certainly mismatched to the seriousness he dealt out-

 He had a delicate frame and couldn’t have been too much shorter than Daichi (though his lack of physical build in comparison to Daichi made him seem all the thinner) and his facial features relatively soft, making him hardly look ready to play the intimidating role. Daichi looked over the fellow, still not sure where his dangerous sharpness had stemmed from so suddenly. His facial expression slowly began to reset to something more peaceful as he peeked back over at Daichi, his almond tinted eyes meeting his gaze slowly. Daichi felt an outbreak of heat in his cheeks and nervously scratched at it, opening his mouth to apologize for the miniature collision when the smaller fellow brushed his ash grey locks out of his face and smiled weakly.

 “I wasn’t entirely looking where I was going, I’m sorry. I didn’t bump you too hard, did-“the fellow heaved out an exasperated sighed and peeked past Daichi once more, “-excuse me for a second I just- _Tanaka, what did I tell you about picking up Noya_?” the fellow asked in disbelief and slumped forward.

Daichi glanced back over and made eye contact with Ennoshita expectantly, who on cue stood up and scolded Tanaka enough for him to place Nishinoya back down like a stubborn child having to let go of their favorite toy. The smaller fellow sighed and Daichi for a moment felt bad for him so he extended out his hand as a friendly gesture.

“Acquaintance of Tanaka as well?” Daichi inquired quietly to which the smaller fellow began to grin widely- Daichi hadn’t paid much attention to his beauty mark until that point as crinkles formed at the corner of his eyes, spotting for a split second a small twinkle in his eyes that made sent an agonizing rush of warmth along his neck once more.

“Sugawara Koushi. We've been friends since high school... “He said with a small shrug and lightly shook Daichi’s hand and admittedly Daichi couldn’t help but pay a little extra attention to the size difference in their hands, “and what about you?”

“Daichi Sawamura. I’m the doctor he sees almost every other week,” Daichi said with a smile but then immediately came to regret it as the fellow- Sugawara, rather, frowned and a brief look of panic flashed over his face.

 He probably hadn’t been aware of Tanaka’s poor sense of self-preservation.

“Oh. _Oh_. Well, that’s certainly one way to know him, um…I mean I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised because he’s just very…” Sugawara gaped for a moment and gestured loosely in the air, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion as he delved quietly for the right word,”…intense? I promise I’ll talk to him later about it. He hasn’t been causing you too much grief has he?” Sugawara asked warily, cringing a bit.

Daichi reached over and pat his shoulder a few times reassuringly, earning a fairly flustered look from Sugawara.

“He’s not too bad. Ennoshita over there-“Daichi glanced over his shoulder back at Ennoshita and pointed at him briefly, “-can handle him just fine. How he does it, I’m not entirely sure. That boy can hardly sit through a horror film so I’m not sure how he can look at Tana-“

Sugawara let out a small gasp and raised his eyebrows in an overly dramatic look of having been offended and for a moment Daichi almost swore he felt something in his stomach flutter at the sheer frequency of his hitched voice. Daichi began to grin but then Sugawara reached over and threw an unsuspectingly dangerous chop at Daichi’s side with spot on accuracy, landing a blow right to one of his ribs albeit not rough enough to actually harm Daichi.

“That’s a cruel thing to say,” Sugawara warned him in a low tone with his hand ready to chop him once more though Daichi could visibly catch a hint of a smirk curling over his lips ever so slowly.

Daichi rubbed his side and felt his grin reviving itself at the sight of Sugawara about to fight him, finding there to be something strangely… _humorous_ about Sugawara attempting to play-fight him in the middle of a club. What exactly was he trying to accomplish? Defending Tanaka’s honor? Daichi had only been joking and Sugawara’s clear lack of actual threat to Daichi (taking into consideration his earlier sharpness he had under his belt) definitely meant that Sugawara was joking. For a moment he wondered if he _himself_ would do the same for Ennoshita-

Maybe not chopping someone in the side per se, but Daichi could imagine it when he recalled the time Tanaka practically knocked Ennoshita out cold trying to give him a piggyback ride indoors and Akaashi nearly had to restrain Daichi. Needless to say Tanaka was banned from lifting anything besides his own belongings after that in the presence of Daichi.

“Sorry,” Daichi blurted out which earned him a surprised and then immediately embarrassed look from Sugawara.

“Sorry, it’s a…thing. I know Tanaka can be quite the delinquent, but he’s…” Sugawara said as he gestured apologetically, pausing right as he stopped to search for the right word.

“… _your_ delinquent,” Daichi said with a small snort and Sugawara’s face completely lit up, a small twinkle returning to his eyes once more.

 Daichi felt a small flutter in his stomach once more but immediately dismissed it, imagining it was probably just his poor lunch from earlier coming back to haunt him. Sugawara smiled brightly and moved past him with a nod after something of a pause, seating himself at the table across from Daichi as it was the only seat unoccupied aside from his own. Daichi restarted his journey once more to the bar to fetch himself a drink when he considered asking Sugawara if he wanted anything but as he peeked back over his should he seemed busy talking to Ennoshita so Daichi left him alone. Back at the bar he ran into Tanaka who was already up and waiting on drinks, but Daichi had almost missed him at first for being so uncharacteristically quiet and calm. By no means was Daichi _complaining_ as he really didn’t need Tanaka getting rowdy and making Daichi spill his drink but something was certainly a little off about him. What it exactly was, he couldn’t tell.

 Returning to the table he found Ennoshita chatting up a storm with Sugawara which surprised him a little. It wasn’t like he knew Ennoshita to be completely shy but the sheer look on both Sugawara and his face as Daichi sat himself back down did concern him. Scheming wasn’t the right word but Ennoshita definitely looked as if he were up to _something_ -and while Daichi knew him to be too innocent to do anything serious (aside from serve out a brutally honest comeback), Daichi couldn’t help but feel a bit suspicious of him. Sugawara was definitely looking at him funny too but it was less of a menacing glance like Ennoshita’s and more of a confused stare. Whatever was going on, Daichi was out of the loop.

“Did I miss something?” Daichi asked in a low and apprehensive tone as he took a sip from his beer.

 

Ennoshita leaned over the table toward him and smiled _way_ too widely for Daichi to find comforting.

“We’ve come to a consensus that you should dance,” Ennoshita chirped with one quick exchanging of glances with Sugawara who nodded.

It took all Daichi had not to choke on his sip of beer and send the burning down the wrong pipe, painfully remember the first and last time Ennoshita had witnessed his outlandish attempt at dancing. It had easily been a painful experience for him and those within the general vicinity of him. And yet here Ennoshita was, happily advocating for Daichi to try his awful luck once more and possibly humiliate himself in the process.

 

Daichi wasn’t quite sure what Ennoshita was scheming but he imagined it wasn’t going to end well.

 

* * *

 

Tanaka hadn't known how much he had needed Friday to roll around until it did.

Initially speaking, it had begun as just Noya and he going out to a club but then along the way somehow Suga got clustered into the equation and naturally Tanaka told Ennoshita about it and _may_ have invited him without a second thought, which- the more the merrier, right? That kid was too innocent for his own good anyway and needed to get out more often (Tanaka swore he would confiscate Ennoshita’s phone if Tanaka had to hear _one_ more time how his idea of being a rebel was staying up and watching Netflix without Daichi) which coincidentally was similar to Suga who in general needed to get out more often as confirmed by Noya tattling on him for visiting the café every day for almost a week.

Tanaka frequently questioned many things about Suga, namely how on earth he was supposed to be the most mature one between them.

After Tanaka had finished helping Ukai replace a few old car motors and flat tires (why on earth people didn’t know the basics of replacing their own flat tires, Tanaka would just never understand) he made sure to clean up his workspace properly before taking his leave at the end of his workday. Tanaka tried allotting his clean-up time properly but in the end he left himself with little to no time left for returning to the apartment and switching out of his partially stained work clothes. Somehow despite his rush, he happened to arrive at the bar before anyone else which gave him the unspoken power of choosing a comfortable space in the club- not too dangerously close to the dancefloor but close enough to be able to feel the vibrations of the music. Running maybe a good twenty minutes late Noya arrived to the bar with Suga trailing nervously behind him which was almost a humorous sight in itself to see Suga nervously tower over Noya while following him like a lost child.

“Ryuu!” Noya hollered eagerly once Tanaka had entered his field of vision.

Tanaka felt a spark within himself ignite from merely watching Noya and he opened his mouth to holler back with equal zeal to his best friend, but Suga reached over before he could howl out anything and furiously rubbed both of their heads until there was a definite burning sensation. Tanaka removed his beanie for a moment to cool down his scalp and looked at Suga who looked thoroughly pleased with himself for intercepting the two of them, so rightfully in turn Tanaka gave him a robust slap on the back. As to be expected, Suga yelped.

Tanaka highly doubted that he had really tapped Suga _that_ hard.

“Oi, Noya. Did you get lost along the way or something?” Tanaka jokingly badgered him, Noya scoffing and giving Suga a dirty look.

“Me? Nah, it was _Suga_ who needed like 10 minutes to pick out something to wear because I told him he couldn’t come to the club looking so… _frumpy_ ,” Noya said in a matter of fact tone, gesturing at Suga who-well, admittedly wearing skinny jeans and a cardigan was a step up from his normal attire.

Tanaka hadn’t seen whatever Suga had been wearing previously before his wardrobe change but he trusted Noya’s judgment in combination with some of the admittedly frumpier outfits he had seen Suga wear in the past. Tanaka snickered a little and watched as Suga quickly became too self-conscious and flustered, needing to excuse himself for a moment. He almost managed to stop Suga from fleeing to the bathroom mid-step when over at the bar he saw a flash of a familiar mint color.

Tanaka grinned from ear to ear and cupped his hands around his mouth as to imitate a megaphone.

 “Oi, oi, oi- look what the cat dragged in, “Tanaka hollered at him as he began to stride over, quickly finding Daichi only about a foot away from Ennoshita.

Daichi gave Tanaka a weird look and Ennoshita stood up, coming in dangerously close to him. Tanaka got excited for a moment, hoping Ennoshita was going to dap him up or something like they had practiced (which was a work in progress at  best)-

But instead he frowned at Tanaka.

“You’re being unnecessary,” Ennoshita pointed out with a sharp tongue.

Tanaka paused for a moment to take in Ennoshita’s words and then found himself weakly smiling, admittedly a _little_ amused by his honesty. That boy was blunt like no one’s business, but Tanaka could respect that about him and apologized under his breath while scratching the back of his head. Remembering just as quickly as he had forgotten, he had left Noya back at the table all by himself unless Suga had returned so Tanaka gestured about wildly to motion for Ennoshita to follow him back. Ennoshita turned and whispered something to Daichi before waddling behind Tanaka obediently. Once back at the table Noya enthusiastically greeted Ennoshita and Daichi, reminding both of them stridently who he was.

Naturally Daichi seemed unimpressed and moved himself over to an end table seat away from Ennoshita, Noya and he. Tanaka didn’t bother to think too much of it because it was his loss if he didn’t want to be where all the fun was.

“Hey, Ryuu! You’ll _never_ guess what happened to me today!” Noya said with gusto and leaned in closer to Tanaka, his eyes lighting up like a kid on Christmas morning.

Tanaka chortled and leaned in as well, scratching his chin slowly.

“Ah, lemme guess- Kiyoko came into the café and asked to be your girlfriend?”

“Nah, although that would’ve been pretty sweet…” Noya said in a deflated voice.

Tanaka nodded solemnly in agreement, knowing that neither of them would turn down the goddess otherwise known as Kiyoko. Tanaka could see Ennoshita glancing at him a little funny from his peripheral, but it was obviously because Tanaka had only been able to share tales of Kiyoko with him rather than actually show the kid the goddess herself. If he could manage that much, he was positive that someday Ennoshita would eventually convert to the esteemed rank of being one of her followers. Noya perked back up and clenched his fists, gazing back at Tanaka excitedly once more.

“Dude, I got a _promotion_ ,” Noya said in complete awe of his own news.

Tanaka chuckled in disbelief, growing steadily more stoked for his best friend.

“Holy shit, really?”

“Yeah, no joke!”

Both Tanaka and Noya paused for a moment and locked eyes, not needing to even exchange words before Tanaka freely reached over and started to lift Noya up by his sides in an imitation of a scene from Lion King-

“Tanaka, put Noya down _right_ this second.”

Tanaka looked back over his shoulder to see Suga giving him a dangerous look, clearly meaning business. Tanaka merely rolled his eyes and let go of Noya, both of them feeling disappointed. Ennoshita smiled weakly at the two of them and muttered a small congratulations to Noya under his breath. Noya lethargically thanked him and looked at Tanaka with a small shrug.

“What all sort of promotion is it?” Ennoshita asked quietly, tilting his head all too curiously.

“Huh? Oh, I didn’t even tell you about what I do did I? I mean I might’ve mentioned that I work at a café and then-oh! Oh, oh, oh!”

Noya bounced on his heels in his signature way of utter excitement.

“ _Dude_. Kuroo said he’d teach me to cook. You know what that means, right?” Noya said in a low tone while leaning in close to Tanaka once more.

“No way.”

“ _Yeah fucking way_.”

Once more in the heat of the moment Tanaka reached over and swiftly lifted Noya up as though they were reenacting Lion King successfully with his hands planted firmly at Noya’s sides, raising him up a decent amount from the ground in celebration. Noya fist pumped in the air while Ennoshita looked thoroughly horrified from the sidelines at the display.

“ _Tanaka, what did I tell you about picking up Noya_?”

All three of them looked back over to see Suga hunched forward in an annoyed slump and Daichi looking over sharply in their direction. Ennoshita stood up and got close to Tanaka, motioning for him to return Noya to the ground.

“I know you mean well but you’re causing a scene. You should probably stop that,” Ennoshita whispered to Tanaka as he calmly gestured.

Tanaka and Noya collectively groaned as Tanaka had to return him to his feet. Ennoshita looked at Daichi for a while and then back to Tanaka, reaching over and ever so lightly touching his shoulder in attempt to give him something of a reassuring pat. Tanaka nearly retaliated the touch with a slap on the back until he remembered how fragile Ennoshita was and refrained from doing so. Noya returned to his seat at the table next to Tanaka and the two of them got a small laugh out of the impromptu perfect lift for a bit-

But then Ennoshita sat himself distanced away to the left of Tanaka so he tugged at Ennoshita’s chair and reeled him in a bit closer, trying to keep the poor kid from becoming a third wheel between Noya and he. Naturally he mumbled something under his breath about it being unnecessary so Tanaka reached over and aggressively rubbed his head until Ennoshita’s smile emerged- albeit weak and hard to notice. Tanaka looked over at Noya who probably should’ve been laughing at Ennoshita getting razzed with but instead Noya just sorta seemed…

Spaced out?

Noya sat in his seat with his elbows propped up on the tabletop so that his arms could sit upright and support his leaning posture over the table, his chin resting on his wrists. For once he was remarkably silent and while Suga _had_ just scolded them two times in a row (and then also Ennoshita if you could even call it that) Noya wasn’t one to just up and lose spirit so easily. Tanaka nodded at Noya and waved loosely in the range of his peripheral which startled him a moderate amount, leaving him merely blinking at Tanaka with a dumbfounded expression.

“You alright?” Tanaka asked out of concern, half suspecting that Noya could’ve just been tired from his workday.

Noya nodded as though he had never spaced out and waved dismissively.

“I’m alright, just thinking about stuff.” Noya stated flatly.

“Stuff?” Tanaka repeated back to Noya.

Noya opened his mouth to answer but then immediately re-shut it and shrugged, putting on a clearly fake smile for Tanaka. Tanaka scowled at him in turn and leaned over the table a bit, giving Noya a necessary onceover. Tanaka and he were _best friends_ and if there was something bothering him, he would’ve been the first to know regardless of however minor it was deemed and yet Noya remained silent.

Admittedly it was extremely frustrating to not be able to do anything beyond watching _something_  bother him.

 “Are you feeling okay?” Ennoshita piped in with a serious tone, attempting to help as he leaned over the table like Tanaka.

“Yeah, what’s up? Worried about work? The time? Ladies?” 

 And in an instant Tanaka could see he had hit a bulls-eye from the way Noya went immediately alert at the mention of ladies. Tanaka tried to hold back a snicker for a second and patted Noya roughly on the shoulder.

“Lemme guess, you found yourself a cutie and you’re worried about sharing Kiyoko now, huh?”

Noya tilted his head side to side weakly, in between answers.

“Something like that,” Noya said as a grin began to curl over his lips.

Tanaka puffed out his chest with pride, feeling proud of himself for finally having started to solve the mystery of what had been bothering Noya. He reached over once more across the table and patted Noya on the shoulder before leaving his seat and starting to move away slowly, waggling a finger at Noya mid-step.

“Oi, you better tell me all about this lucky lady after I return with some drinks,” Tanaka warned him jokingly, finally spotting a weak smile on Noya’s face.

As Tanaka strode away from the table he tried not to dwell too heavily on the faces Noya had made, especially the fake smile. They had been best friends for what, forever? It was seriously frustrating to have seen Noya try to even pull a fake _anything_ on him. Tanaka had faith in that Noya would definitely come through and tell him what exactly was bothering him because-

Well, that’s what best friends were for, weren’t they?

And it wasn’t like he needed to lie to him after all.

 

* * *

 

Truthfully, Ennoshita had originally accepted Tanaka’s invitation to the club out of his own desire to spend time with him.

Before actually accepting to go he Tanaka had warned him that he was bringing along other friends, which put Ennoshita at risk for becoming a third wheel. To essentially counter that and guarantee a third wheel-free night Ennoshita had invited along Daichi to keep him company if all else went wrong (which had been a long shot in itself since Daichi wasn’t a fan of being around Tanaka), which arguably sounded like it couldn’t go wrong-

Unfortunately, Ennoshita’s plans had  _completely_  backfired and regardless of bringing Daichi along he found himself being a third wheel not only to Tanaka and his friend Noya as he had anticipated, but  _also_  to Daichi and Tanaka’s other friend. Ennoshita had wound up in a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

Initially it hadn’t been a large issue as he sat near Tanaka and Noya, watching their antics from the semi-sidelines as they ridiculously reenacted the scene from Lion King with Noya substituting Simba (Ennoshita seen them do it once before at the hospital but he hadn’t been able to freely admire Tanaka’s muscular arms without Daichi judging him from afar). Tanaka’s other friend interrupted them twice from their reenactment which was probably for the better. After Tanaka and Noya had settled down Ennoshita started to seat himself closer to Daichi with the intention of making sure he hadn’t completely abandoned him but much to his surprise he was chatting with the other friend of Tanaka. From that angle it was difficult to fully see Daichi’s face but Ennoshita could’ve sworn him and the friend seemed to both be grinning like idiots.

Perhaps Daichi had made a friend?

Ennoshita was eager to find out and started to lean out of his seat but then Tanaka caught him off guard and begun to reel him in closer by firmly pulling on the top rail of his chair. Ennoshita’s weight wasn’t properly distributed and he nearly fell out of his chair but Tanaka paid no mind.

“That’s unnecessary,” Ennoshita mumbled under his breath at Tanaka.

Tanaka gave him that  _one_  grin and reached over, furiously rubbing Ennoshita’s head until his hair had been thoroughly ruffled up.

Ennoshita really, truly, had meant to be annoyed at him for almost tipping him out of his seat and then messing up his hair but he was all too weak to that one grin. Ennoshita’s heart pounded painfully fast and he  _knew_  he had fallen sucker to Tanaka once more. To make things worse Tanaka only looked more pleased with himself and Ennoshita could slowly feel his heart about to pound right out of his chest as he admired that look on his face. He really couldn’t stay mad at him when his lips curved up and he made that sinful look, and admittedly at that Ennoshita may have even smiled a  _little_. Ennoshita had opened his mouth to tell Tanaka he was being unnecessary once more (his heart probably wasn’t going to be able to take much more of that grin) but then Tanaka looked over at Noya and his face twisted into something unpleasant.

Noya was zoning out for some reason and it was making Tanaka incredibly unhappy.

“You alright?” Tanaka asked warily, to which Noya nodded and waved his hand dismissively back at him.

“I’m alright, just thinking about stuff,” Noya said plainly.

“Stuff?” Tanaka repeated.

Noya began to open his mouth but then immediately shut it and shrugged, clearly not trying to concern Tanaka. Ennoshita imagined that he probably could’ve fooled him too if he hadn’t mustered up a fake smile, to which Tanaka scrunched his face up into something much more unpleasant and leaned over the table. Ennoshita leaned over the table warily in vague imitation of Tanaka and while he knew he wasn’t too much better at helping Noya in the situation that didn’t stop him from at least giving it a shot.

“Are you feeling okay?” Ennoshita said with a serious tone directed at Noya.

“Yeah, what’s up? Worried about work? The time? Ladies?”

Ennoshita had seen Noya make a number of alert and excited faces all evening but at that moment his face was definitely one of if someone had caught him red-handed. Tanaka snickered and patted Noya on the shoulder some which really didn’t seem to properly put him at ease.

“Lemme guess, you found yourself a cutie and you’re worried about sharing Kiyoko now, huh?”

Noya weakly tilted his head side to side like he was busy trying to pick the answer that would get him in the least amount of trouble.

“Something like that,” Noya said with a grin.

And just like that, Tanaka was puffing out his chest and patting Noya on the shoulder. He stood up and started to move away, waggling a finger in the direction of Noya.

 “Oi, you better tell me all about this lucky lady after I return with some drinks,” Tanaka warned him teasingly before he finally left.

Ennoshita shook his head in disapproval at Tanaka and watched at Noya’s fake smile began to resurface once Tanaka was out of sight. He wasn’t sure just what was going on but he had a bad feeling it was much out of his league if it involved romance- he was having a hard enough time getting Tanaka to stop being oblivious long enough to notice his albeit poor, but honest attempt at flirting.Tanaka had a habit of frequently touching him between massaging his bad knee whenever it was acting up to trying give him head-rubs and he  _still_  didn’t think of it as anything but normal between them. He felt bad for Noya but he was in no place to advise him so he turned away at the table and glanced over to Daichi just in time to catch him leaving, Tanaka’s other friend seating himself across the table from where Daichi had been. Ennoshita swore for a second that Tanaka’s friend was looking at Daichi rather particularly. It reminded Ennoshita of the face Tanaka made when he spoke of Kiyoko.

Not that Ennoshita had a problem with it at all, he was all for Daichi making friends if anything. Ennoshita leaned in closer to him in hopes of catching his attention. Admittedly he had been curious earlier about whatever happened between the two of them earlier before Tanaka forcefully removed him.

“Ennoshita Chikara,” Ennoshita introduced himself as he jutted out his hand to Tanaka’s friend who was somewhat caught off guard but shook his hand regardless and smiled brightly.

“Sugawara Koushi. You’re the one who’s been helping handle Tanaka, I hear?” He said with a small laugh.

“I suppose that’s me. I’m a nurse so it’s to be expected,” Ennoshita said flatly.

Sugawara’s attention ever so casually veered back over to Daichi so Ennoshita watched him too but he didn’t seem to be doing anything too significant.

“Hey did you know that Daichi’s an awful dancer?”

Sugawara whipped his head back over to Ennoshita at such a painful speed that it almost hurt to watch, and it made him wonder if he had at least  _some_  sort of thing going on with Daichi. Well, that or the thought of Daichi dancing was a fun visual which Ennoshita could confirm to be the exact opposite after needing to watch it happen only once. Sugawara opened his mouth to say something but instead he furrowed his brows in confusion and kept glancing back at Daichi then Ennoshita.

“It’s like,  _really_  bad. How about you, can you dance Sugawara? “

“Just Suga is fine,” He said with a small and slightly nervous laugh, shrugging and rubbing his freshly reddened cheeks,”…I mean, I can do a few things. Nothing special, but um…”

Ennoshita reached over and tried to touch his hand reassuringly but couldn’t reach.

“I promise you, however bad you think your moves are it’s nothing compared to Daichi. He’s just so bulky and he doesn’t know how to move his body properly,” Ennoshita said with a small shake of his head.

“That sounds awful,” Suga said quietly and started to cover his face in disbelief.

“We went to a wedding once and the groom prohibited him from dancing,”

“You’re kidding.”

“Watching him dance will give you enough secondhand embarrassment to last you a lifetime and then some as I can confirm.”

Suga covered his mouth and tried to hold back a laugh but failed miserably. Ennoshita himself laughed a little, knowing he shouldn't have been picking on Daichi. He glanced back at Daichi who for a second was looking back at them and it made him wonder what Suga’s dance moves were like. Hands down, Daichi was a god awful dancer and if Suga could help him-

And then it hit him.

“Suga, I’m going to need you to back me up on a thing.” Ennoshita whispered to Suga as he looked around for Daichi who was coming back to the table right on time.

 

Ennoshita couldn’t help but look at Daichi a  _little_  weird because he knew it was a long shot. Suga gave Daichi a confused glance but it was probably attributed to not being able to look at Daichi the same after the visuals of him dancing. Daichi had clearly caught onto him though as he was giving both of them a funny look as he sipped his beer.

“Did I miss something?” Daichi asked in a low and uneasy tone as he took a sip from his beer.

Ennoshita leaned over the table toward him and smiled.

“We’ve come to a consensus that you should dance,” Ennoshita said and then exchanged glances with Suga, who nodded.

For a second Daichi wore an expression of betrayal and so Ennoshita tilted his head and tried pretending like he didn’t know why Daichi was giving him an unpleasant expression. Suga clasped his hands together and caught Daichi’s attention.

“If it makes you feel any less awkward, I’ll join you.”

“ _Koushi_ -“

Suga stood up from his seat and started to move away from the table, gesturing for Daichi to follow him but he shook his head stubbornly.

“C’mon. We can be awkward and awful together,” Suga said in a sing-song voice, beaming overly joyously right at Daichi.

And before Ennoshita’s eyes, it happened.

Daichi snorted and stood up, sluggishly moving behind Suga though but not without giving Ennoshita one last dirty look. Once just barely in the outer circle of the dancefloor Suga began gesturing to different parts of Daichi and while Ennoshita wasn’t within range to hear the conversation over the music he didn’t need to once he saw Daichi’s overly embarrassed body language. Daichi looked incredibly pained to begin moving either of his feet and it was instantly clear that he didn’t match up with the rhythm of the music and his body just awkwardly shifted in such a stiff way that Ennoshita cringed. Suga moved in like damage control and darted around him, touching him a few times on the arm to probably calm him down which did the opposite as noted by Daichi’s reaction. Daichi had entered a flustered stage and refused to move his feet at all, firmly planted where he stood. Ennoshita almost got up out of his seat to help Suga but then Suga began touching Daichi a little more childishly. At first there was a hip bump which Ennoshita thought was an accident and then a shoulder nudge. Daichi loosened up but just as he did Suga backed up a little-

Needless to say, neither Ennoshita nor Daichi had been ready to witness Suga actually dancing.

It was incredibly fluid, his hips actually dipped on beat and he was able to move his upper half  _a lot_  less awkwardly in comparison to Daichi. Daichi seemed to watch in awe at him in motion and Ennoshita didn’t blame him. Ennoshita admittedly even found himself a bit enticed and Suga was  _definitely_ not his type. Ennoshita hadn’t expected to unleash some sort of dancing monster from within with Suga but found that the best part had yet to come as Ennoshita watched in one quick motion Suga demonstrated some sort of expert grinding right before Daichi. Luckily Daichi had been sparred in the sense that Suga hadn’t done it directly against him which was still plenty to send Daichi waltzing back to the table, his cheeks red as tomatoes as he gave Ennoshita a dirty look that he should’ve seen coming.

“ _Chikara_.” Daichi warned him in a low and serious tone.

“I was just as unprepared as you,”

Daichi huffed and rubbed his cheeks that were slowly losing their crimson shade, up until Suga came back to the table with a pair of equally crimson cheeks. Both he and Daichi gaped for a moment at each other and it was Daichi who turned and looked at Ennoshita first.

“Ennoshita’s leg was acting up earlier and it’s been a number of hours since he’s taken anything for it so we should probably go soon,” Daichi said in a fairly unconvincing tone.

Daichi spoke the truth but Ennoshita’s leg was feeling as good as it was going to, as far as having a partially torn ACL and forgetting to wear a knee brace went. Suga frowned at the obvious cop-out and looked at Ennoshita carefully.

“You hurt your leg?”

Ennoshita paused long and hard before answering.

Daichi had probably assumed that Ennoshita was on his side and was going to assist him in bailing out on Suga. However, after remembering the faces the two of them had been making all evening he would’ve had to be as thick skulled as Tanaka not to notice _something_ between them. Granted Ennoshita wasn’t even sure if Daichi went that way…or if it was some super platonic thing about to go down between them like with Noya and Tanaka, but either way Ennoshita was willing to bet it was worth encouraging. Ennoshita smiled and reached down, rubbing the top of his right knee ever so delicately.

“Old sports injury, but I’m perfectly fine at the moment.”

“Oh.” Suga said in surprise and looked back over to Daichi, who looked over to Ennoshita in confusion.

Daichi and Suga stood there for a moment, awkwardly gaping at each other once more so Ennoshita rose to his feet and started to move a few feet away to Tanaka and Noya. Tanaka had completely moved himself over to Noya’s side and was showing him something on his phone which probably explained how Tanaka had managed to miss the exceptionally awkward attempt at a dance lesson Daichi had been subjected to. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Daichi hadn’t ditched Suga again, which he hadn’t. In fact, the two of them were talking about something and gesturing wildly, Suga’s laugh almost louder than the music. Ennoshita sidled up slowly to Noya and Tanaka to check on them and immediately Tanaka noticed his presence. With a large grin (though sadly not _the_ grin) Tanaka motioned for him to come join the two of them. Ennoshita yawned and waddled over, which earned him a concerned look from Tanaka.

“Oi, you getting sleepy?” Tanaka said as reached over and jokingly pinched Ennoshita’s cheek, both of Ennoshita’s cheeks turning red at the sensation of Tanaka’s firm grip on his skin between his curled index finger and thumb.

“I’m supposed to be a designated driver so I-“Ennoshita bit his lower lip in an effort to try to restrain another yawn but had little success,”-sure hope not.”

“Dude, it’s not even _9,_ ” Noya said as he whipped out his phone to check the time, chuckling at the sight of Ennoshita holding back a yawn .

Ennoshita shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck and squeezed his eyes shut. Come to think of it, he wasn’t even entirely sure how many hours at work he had endured earlier, he just knew that it was a number. Bigger than 5, but definitely less than 14 sounded vaguely accurate.

“ _Chika_.”

Ennoshita groaned quietly and looked at Tanaka, the only person he knew to unnecessarily call him something like that.

“You’re being unnecessary.” Ennoshita whispered, leaning over the table.

“And you look like you’re about to pass out. You want me to give you a ride home?”

“What about Daichi?”

Noya and Tanaka exchanged glances and then Tanaka searched in his pocket for the key to his car.

“Eh, I’m sure he’s fine. Noya, you’ve got Suga right?”

“I was gonna drive Suga back, yeah.”

“Awesome. And then I’ll just drop you at home-“

“ _I’m not that tired._ ” Ennoshita snapped unintentionally at Tanaka.

Tanaka leaned in dangerously close to Ennoshita and if he had been more awake he would’ve been quietly savoring the lack of space between them. Being instead drowsy, his priorities remained in trying to balance himself.

“If you’re not that tired then what’s the name of my sister?”

“It’s…Sae…Sae…"

Tanaka looked at him with a perfectly straight face, twirling his car keys around his index finger.

“Is that your final answer?”

And with that, Ennoshita was deemed too tired.

 

Ennoshita hadn’t realized how tired he had been until even _Daichi_ didn’t put up a fuss about Tanaka taking him home. Granted Daichi had been partially preoccupied with Suga who also advocated for Ennoshita to go to bed early, though if he had been more awake he may have appreciated the sentiment properly instead of whining passive aggressively. Luckily Tanaka managed to usher him into his car before he said anything too troubling and similarly to an infant Ennoshita nearly passed out from the sheer car drive back to he and Daichi’s shared apartment. Tanaka stubbornly opted for also escorting Ennoshita into the house, herding the visibly passive aggressive sleepyhead up the apartment stairs and then to the door. Ennoshita had no issue getting in and past the first few initial steps but then stumbled slightly over a carpet.

In a mix of cursing and a lot of exasperated noises Tanaka crouched down and pulled Ennoshita up from under his armpits.

“What is this, your first day with new legs?” Tanaka sneered and held Ennoshita firmly in place once on his feet properly.

This time, it was Ennoshita’s turn to make a poker face at Tanaka but his drowsiness weakened the seriousness required.

“You’re being unnecessary.”

“You can’t even make it 5 steps in without falling over. If you fall and break your neck, Daichi’s gonna kick my ass.”

 Tanaka let go of his hold from under his pits and instead moved to the side of Ennoshita and bent his knees. Ennoshita had a bad feeling that Tanaka was about to do something incredibly stupid, though seeing as Ennoshita wasn’t nearly as short as Noya there was hope for all of thirty seconds that Tanaka would reconsider his ridiculous plan. But then he didn’t.

In the blink of an eye Tanaka scooped up Ennoshita, his arms hooked and sweeping upward from behind Ennoshita’s legs which effectively forced his legs to dangle an awkward amount over. Tanaka cursed a few times and then forced himself to stand up, much to Ennoshita’s horror as he felt himself being lifted bridal style. Ennoshita knew for a fact that Tanaka was capable of carrying heavy loads but that failed to put Ennoshita at ease in the least. Ennoshita’s levels of alertness amplified and in a matter of seconds he began to squirm.

“Oi, cut that out. You’re gonna get us both hurt doing that,” Tanaka scolded him and stomped into the apartment, pausing as he passed the couch.

“You can drop me there.” Ennoshita mumbled, pointing to the couch.

“Are you gonna sleep on the couch?”

“I’ll do it.” He whispered back.

Tanaka let out a dry laugh and then continued on past the couch, nearly pushing open Ennoshita’s door with a swift kick. _Nearly_ being the key word as Tanaka hadn’t properly thought through the weight of Ennoshita in combination with what his action required of him (namely a leg he clearly needed for balance) and almost dropped Ennoshita in the process. If no other part of being dangerously carried by Tanaka through the apartment woke him up, the point where he had been nearly being dropped onto the floor and a searing rush of pain gathered at his knee was certainly it. Ennoshita yelped in pain and jerked his body forward while trying to curl into a ball around the surging discomfort as Tanaka teetered ever closer to almost dropping him once more.

“Chikara, what the fuck?” Tanaka snapped while trying his best to slowly lower the two of them properly to the floor.

Ennoshita continued to whimper and curl his arms around his knee protectively which Ennoshita admittedly knew wasn’t helping the situation but there was no way he could simply ignore the waves of incoming pain. Tanaka freed himself from under Ennoshita and forcefully removed Ennoshita’s hands from his right knee, instead replacing them with his own hands. Ennoshita huffed and whined at the discomfort as Tanaka meticulously set to kneading his palms around Ennoshita’s knee, massaging it with great caution. Much to Ennoshita’s embarrassment, this certainly was not the first time Tanaka had assisted him in the middle of a crippling spell. If Daichi had been there he would’ve had a near aneurism to have witnessed Ennoshita have more than one in a day. Luckily, it was Tanaka watching and not Daichi.

“The drop was what did it, didn’t it?” Tanaka mumbled with a small huff.

“Probably.”

Even with a weaker spell Ennoshita was going to have to let his knee rest for easily a good twenty minutes. Once Tanaka was done Ennoshita laid down with his back against the floor and Tanaka followed his example. Ennoshita snorted and weakly shoved him with just his fingertips.

“You don’t have to stick around, I’ll probably be like this for a while.”

Tanaka glanced over at him with a dubious stare and shook his head slowly.

“If I leave now I bet you'll sleep on the floor again.”

“ _That was an accident_.”

Tanaka shot one more look at Ennoshita before he let out an awful laugh, something between a cackle and something being mauled. Ennoshita merely shook his head and restrained a smile.

Even if it was pretty awful, Ennoshita imagined he could stand to listen to his cackle just a bit longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daichi often forgets that he is not in fact the father.  
> I promise I hurt Ennoshita for a good reason.
> 
> I also went hella hard on the Ennotana and if that isn't your cup of tea then I respect that.  
>  ~~And truthfully the rotation won't be back on Ennoshita for a little bit so you can breathe easy.~~  
>  (ﾉﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ


	5. Leniency

Bokuto hadn't taken much offense to Kuroo requiring him to stay a bit longer after his shift to help close up the café.

Kuroo was his boss and best friend so naturally there was little to no refusal on Bokuto’s end for the task. He had helped with it a number of times before and fortunately (though _unfortunately_ as well) Akaashi was going to have another unnecessarily late shift at the hospital so he wouldn’t be stuck waiting around for Bokuto as he closed up. However, instead it meant that this time _Bokuto_ was going to be the one waiting for Akaashi to finish up his shift which wasn’t going to be too difficult a task because Bokuto could be patient- well, if he really _had_ to be anyway.

After Kuroo and he had properly washed all of the leftover dishes in the sinks and wiped down all of the tabletops, Bokuto made sure to double check that the front door was correctly locked before the two of them split ways. He totally trusted his own judgment in whether he had locked the door but then there had been that one time someone broke in and messed with the ovens, which definitely didn’t leave Kuroo nor the local firefighters too happy. Bokuto twisted the key firmly in the front door’s lock and then shot a glance over at Kuroo who grinned widely, holding out his hand expectantly. He removed the key in one swift motion and tossed it lightly to Kuroo who nearly missed it (though the lack of light outside was probably much to blame). Kuroo tucked the key into the right front pocket of his jacket, giving it a small pat as he nodded directly at Bokuto.

“Heading home?”

Bokuto huffed and dropped his shoulders dramatically, following up with a small pout.

“Akaashi’s got a late shift, so if I go home I’ll just kinda…be there. Alone.”

Kuroo let out a low hum and reached over, firmly planting his palm atop of Bokuto’s left shoulder.

“ _Legend of the Guardians_ is still on my Netflix queue if you wanna come over and watch that?”

Bokuto could feel his lips curling into a painfully wide smile as he fidgeted in place, scuffing the ground ever so carefully with the heel of his shoe.

“That would be really sweet. _But_ -” Bokuto did something that was a mix between a shimmy and a squirm in place, “-…what if Akaashi gets home before we finish it? I mean, I totally need to sit down and watch like a gazillion things with you, obviously.”

“Obviously.” Kuroo repeated with small chuckled under his breath.

“…But I should probably wait for him. I think? Maybe, I dunno…” Bokuto mumbled as he nervously tussled his own hair.

Kuroo nodded solemnly and removed himself from Bokuto’s shoulder, instead laughing a little as he stepped back a few paces. Bokuto pursed his lips into a strong pout once more and slumped forward, feeling a bit torn over whether he was supposed to wait for his boyfriend or hang out and watch a movie with his best friend. Admittedly it sounded a little more fun to watch a movie with Kuroo than wait in an empty apartment for Akaashi but he had an awful gut feeling as usual that Akaashi was going to be tired enough to pass out right at the door and that was arguably more problematic than the neighbors complaining about their noise levels-

Which, for the record, it wasn’t their fault that the apartment walls weren’t more soundproof.

“If you want to wait for Akaashi, that’s cool. I assume you’re gonna take the bus home?”

“Yeah, Akaashi took the car today.”

“I see. Well then, in that case just text me when you get home safely.”

“Of course, of course,” Bokuto responded with an enthusiastic nod, waving one last time to Kuroo before they finally went their separate ways.

 

As to be expected, the bus ride home wasn’t exactly all too exciting. Granted Bokuto was comparing the seemingly sluggish public transit ride to whenever Akaashi drove them home, which was generally a blast between Bokuto constantly changing the radio station and howling out impromptu inarticulate lyrics while Akaashi would weakly stifle a laugh and warn him that people were watching. He could very clearly feel people staring him down as a result of the goofy grin plastered across his face as his thoughts camped themselves around the idea of Akaashi laughing, and it wasn’t long before he could almost hear it echoing smoothly through his ears. Needless to say if the people around him hadn’t been staring at him before, his poor attempt at discreetly gushing over Akaashi definitely drew attention to himself. Once the bus reached his stop he scurried off with a slightly cooled down pair of ears and trudged up to the apartment complex, checking his phone numerous times along the way to check if Akaashi had left any texts about leaving the hospital- much to his disappointment he hadn’t.

Bokuto skulked up the final stairs to their apartment and with an endless amount of groans unlocked the door before shoving it open with his shoulder. He quickly remembered to turn on the kitchen lights upon entering (which wasn’t for his own safety as it was Akaashi’s, as they discovered Bokuto’s ridiculous ability to navigate in the dark many power outages ago) and then subsequently threw himself down on the couch with force. He checked his phone once more and whined impatiently under his breath as he texted Kuroo about his safe arrival, squirming around and messing up the order of decorative owl pillows at his feet. Kuroo sent back a half-assed text, to which Bokuto assumed was due his lack of energy. _A twelve hour shift can do that to you_ , Bokuto reminded himself as he tried not to worry too much more about how long Akaashi had been at work. Akaashi would probably feel bad about making Bokuto wait if he knew Bokuto was still wide awake (or at least close to), and it wasn’t like Bokuto really _wanted_ to worry Akaashi…

With a poorly restrained groan, Bokuto forced himself to leave the couch and ready himself for bed.

Much to his surprise, his fatigue decided to come crashing down on him not long after Bokuto stepped into the shower. How many hours exactly _had_ he been on his feet? Dull aching spurred around his heels and his ankles so he made an effort to massage away the soreness, though not without having to seat himself on the cold tiling in the shower. Luckily the aching was short lived and getting back onto his feet wasn’t too difficult. After properly cleansing his hair of gel from earlier and thoroughly scrubbing himself down Bokuto hummed happily at his own cleanliness and stepped out of the shower carefully, scooping up a towel from the hallway closet outside of the bathroom. He hadn’t managed to furiously rub dry more than his hair when he heard a distinct click sound off somewhere in the apartment, to which he quickly whirled around mid-rub and froze in place. Seeing as Kuroo definitely didn’t have keys to their apartment it only made sense that Akaashi had finally arrived home safely. He excitedly scrambled to throw on a t-shirt and pair of boxers (though he nearly tripped jutting his legs so hastily into the boxers) and then tried his best to shuffle over to the kitchen but not too quickly as to startle Akaashi- which apparently couldn’t have been avoided as Akaashi jolted awake (he had gotten a good inch or two of air if not also a mini heart attack from the look of it) upon Bokuto entering the kitchen.

Rather than being equally excited to see the other, Akaashi clutched his chest and sighed with relief as he leaned over the kitchen countertop.

“Bokuto, you…you scared the _shit_ out of me.” Akaashi whispered with a small shake of his head.

“Sorry.” Bokuto mumbled as he waddled over to Akaashi warily, slowly raising his arms up expectantly for a hug.

Though a bit delayed in reaction Akaashi mirrored him and raised his arms out to Bokuto who nearly knocked the air out of him as he flew in for a long awaited hug. Bokuto wrapped his arms around Akaashi carefully, enveloping himself around Akaashi. Akaashi sluggishly leaned in onto Bokuto and closed his eyes with a loud huff, gently nuzzling his cheek into the crook of Bokuto’s neck. The weight difference between them was no issue to Bokuto as he happily hummed and snuck a kiss onto Akaashi’s head, lazily rocking both of them side to side in something of an abbreviated lullaby. Bokuto had been looking forward to just the presence of Akaashi all day (admittedly Akaashi sending him texts the entire day had only fueled said desire), and though somewhat on the weary side Bokuto was plenty awake enough to recognize there being small enough of _something_ off with Akaashi-

Not that Akaashi wasn’t fully capable of being cuddlesome and affectionate when it was just the two of them, but he didn’t generally grip Bokuto so rough unless something was wrong as Akaashi was not the rough type (even if Bokuto tried persuading him to be on a good day). Clearly intended as playful pinches and touches were perfectly fine between them, but Akaashi's nails digging so randomly into Bokuto’s side _definitely_ seemed out of place. He imagined Akaashi had encountered something unpleasant at the hospital and fully planned on withholding it until he came to a boiling point once more. Bokuto was typically the more emotional one of the two of them but there were times when it was instead Akaashi who needed the emotional support.

“Akaaaaaashiiii, ”Bokuto softly sung out as he paid mind to how close Akaashi’s ears were to his mouth, “do you need a hug?”

As though he had hit the nail right on the head, Akaashi’s grip tightened ever so slightly at Bokuto’s waist.

“Isn’t that what this is?” Akaashi mumbled quietly as he relaxed his grip.

“Yeah. But I mean like, a _real_ hug.” Bokuto insisted as he unwrapped his arms from around him and tried to step back and take a look at Akaashi properly who in turn averted his gaze elsewhere while dropping his arms slowly back to his sides.

Akaashi silently stood in place for a while until Bokuto was done waiting for him to stop playing off whatever it was before he leaned back in and carefully wrapped his arms around Akaashi in such a way that he could’ve doubled as a straightjacket. Akaashi fidgeted under his hold but not with enough force to be visibly putting up an actual struggle against it. Bokuto pressed his forehead against Akaashi’s lightly and closed his eyes.

“Take a deep breath,” Bokuto instructed him and inhaled as an example to which Akaashi stubbornly followed, “…and then let it out.”

Rather than Akaashi to letting out a soft sigh and relaxing into his arms he let out a throaty huff and nearly melted into Bokuto’s arms. Not what Bokuto had been expecting to say the least, but Bokuto was pleased at the cooperation.

“ _Bokuto_.” Akaashi mumbled in a low tone, burying his head into Bokuto’s shoulder.

Bokuto hummed softly and peppered slow kisses to almost every inch of Akaashi’s face that was within reach. He could hear Akaashi faintly mumbling complaints about work under his breath which quickly turned into a case of inaudible word vomit as he only got softer as he spoke more freely, his mouth moving hastily against Bokuto’s shoulder through the fabric of the t-shirt. Bokuto loosened his grip and began using his palm to work large circles across Akaashi’s back which earned him a relaxed sigh. He considered asking Akaashi if he had wanted to actually talk about it but as he took note of the way Akaashi’s weight slowly began to drop onto him, he imagined it was a better to drop it and save it for a moment when Akaashi was awake enough to hold his own weight up properly.

Not to his surprise, Akaashi was nearly silent as he sluggishly readied himself for bed between opting to shower by himself and then dressing himself in as much of a haste he could muster (which was by no means actually fast aside from a few swift movements here and there). No doubt about it, his exhaustion was finally showing itself at fullest. Despite being equally tired Bokuto attempted to lighten the previous mood by playfully sidling up beside him and nuzzling into the crook of his neck as Akaashi rinsed his face one last time in front of the bathroom mirror. When Akaashi peeked up into the mirror after splashing his face which admittedly in the process splashed Bokuto too (though a little water never hurt anyone), Bokuto stuck his tongue out and made a humorous face which earned him a soft laugh from Akaashi as he pressed himself back up against Bokuto’s chest. Akaashi most definitely looked exhausted enough to pass out on Bokuto so taking note of such, Bokuto gave him one last hug before shuffling off to the untouched bed. He hastily gripped an edge of the sheet and peeled it back so he could crawl underneath it properly, wiggling himself down on the mattress until he was satisfactorily positioned on his back. Akaashi flicked off the lights to the bedroom nonchalantly as he entered not too long after, crawling under the sheets and cuddling up directly against Bokuto’s side. All Bokuto had to do was turn his head and look at Akaashi for him to slowly inch up and press a kiss to Bokuto’s cheek. The warm sensation of his lips against Bokuto’s cheek had something of a searing linger as he held the kiss against his now painfully heated cheek firmly for more than a few moments, his fingers splaying across the fabric of his shirt in a slow manner.

Bokuto let out a happy hum, finding himself at enough peace to drift off to sleep.

 

Unsurprisingly the next morning upon waking up Bokuto found himself tangled up in a sloppy bundle of covers. Bokuto had always had quite the habit of aggressively rolling around and burrowing himself into the covers in his sleep, which was probably one of his old habits that he had yet to outgrow over the years. Akaashi had really been confused by it at first but over time he definitely warmed up to it, at some point even squirming himself into the tight burrito of blankets on occasion. On this Saturday morning in particular Bokuto could feel Akaashi curled up against him under the tightly wrapped covers, his head resting upon Bokuto’s chest. Bokuto’s lips twisted into a smile as he reached over and began slowly threading his fingers through Akaashi’s hair, savoring the sight beside him for a few minutes before Akaashi started to whimper and squirm as he finally came to.

“ _Bokuto_ …” Akaashi groaned softly, biting back a weak yawn as he peeked over at Bokuto lazily.

“What’s up, tootsie pop?” Bokuto replied in a singsong voice.

As to be expected Akaashi was awake enough to shoot him the most serious, expectant look in response to the nickname. And here Bokuto thought that he would’ve enjoyed a friendly change from the usual greeting which involved referring to him as sunshine or cutiepie.

“What time is it?” Akaashi mumbled with minor difficulty as his gaze softened.

Bokuto furrowed his eyebrows at him and proceeded to groan this time around, shifting and squirming from his comfortable spot until he was emerged out of the blankets far enough to spy the digital clock.

“It’s only ten,” Bokuto mumbled as he attempted to perfectly squirm himself back into place.

“Ten?”

“Mmhm.”

“Oh…” Akaashi started to say, shifting his weight around until he had properly begun to crawl forward onto Bokuto’s chest,”…are you hungry?”

Without even wasting a moment to think about it, Bokuto perked up and opened his mouth excitedly.

“Yeah, definitely.”

And with that Akaashi sluggishly began his journey to crawl out of bed which was admittedly a funny sight, up until Bokuto went to follow and nearly fell off of the bed head first. Rather than laughing at him Akaashi merely shook his head and helped haul him back up to his feet after balancing his own weary self out first. In a zombie-like fashion the two of them staggered out of the bedroom and into the kitchen though it was Bokuto who was awake enough to scramble through the cupboards and find the frying pan which Akaashi immediately gave him a weird look for.

“Not in the mood for an omelette?”

“I’ll pass.”

“French toast?”

Akaashi crinkled his nose ever so slightly for a moment and then shook his head, leaning across the kitchen countertop on the opposite side.

“I’ll have to politely decline.”

Bokuto twirled the frying pan with a flick of his wrist and then pointed it at Akaashi before leaning in close to the kitchen countertop that separated them. Akaashi crossed his arms with an unimpressed expression, probably not happy about Bokuto twirling the frying pan.

“What sounds good then? Pancakes?”

Akaashi reached over and lowered Bokuto’s hand holding the frying pan to the countertop, giving him something of an exasperated look while raising his eyebrows at him. Bokuto pouted and released his grip on the frying pan then slumped over the countertop, making grabby hands through the air at Akaashi until he reached over to pacify him by lacing their fingers together carefully.

“You said you were hungry, so what are _you_ in the mood for?” Akaashi reminded him as his expression relaxed up once more, slowly wiggling their cluster of fingers together.

“I don’t know…” Bokuto said with a small whine of frustration.

Generally speaking, mornings in which the two of them were synchronized enough for both of them to still be in bed by the time the other woke up (all thanks to work shifts) really weren’t easy to come by and Bokuto would’ve been lying if he said he hadn’t been looking forward to spending the day with Akaashi. And okay, maybe spoiling Akaashi with breakfast food hadn’t been part of the plan (not that he had exactly _made_ a plan per se) but the idea of doing something kinda nice with him for once and enjoying their time together was really all he wanted. The two of them probably wouldn’t be able to synchronize for at least another week or so, unless he went and pestered Kuroo. But then he’d be troubling _him_ and Bokuto didn't want to exactly put his boss and best friend in a rough spot. If he switched up his work schedule he’d more than likely also throw off the schedules of everyone else at the café if they had to move around their times to accommodate his own since he had a ridiculous amount of positions to fill to begin with. It came down to him having to choose between pestering his best friend or not spending enough time with Akaashi which was really an unpleasant sort of call to have to make…

Bokuto could slowly feel a dejected spell begin to creep closer the more he thought about it but he was quickly dragged back into reality as he could feel Akaashi’s fingers leaving his own and instead brushing through his yet to be styled bangs.

“Bokuto.”

He pouted and let out an annoyed hum which Akaashi definitely was not fond of, judging by his immediate look of concern.

“I’m not sure what you happen to be thinking about, but…would you like to calm down and talk about it for a moment?”

“I _am_ calm.” Bokuto mumbled back in a small voice.

And just like that, there it was. Akaashi’s signature look of disbelief.

“Bokuto, I’m serious.”

He groaned and whined, squirming in place unhappily against the countertop while aggressively ruffling his hair.

“Today, I finally have the day with you but I just _can't_... _ugh._ ”Bokuto growled in frustration, his thoughts and words not coming together as cohesively as he had wanted and before him was an even more troubled looking Akaashi.

If his dejected spell hadn’t fully taken effect yet, watching Akaashi looking as helpless as he felt definitely did the trick.

 

* * *

 

Akaashi hadn’t always been an especially patient man.

However, after knowing Bokuto for a good twelve going on thirteen years it was safe to say that he had developed a keen sense of patience thanks to said boyfriend who was prone to having extreme mood swings. Akaashi didn’t love him any less for the mood swings because he knew that Bokuto simply couldn’t help them, even if sometimes the mood swings managed to surface at inconvenient times.

As Akaashi leaned across the kitchen countertop and watched in horror as Bokuto quickly unraveled into a dejected mess before him, he couldn’t help but admit this was surely one of the more inconvenient times. He had been paying close attention to Bokuto and he hadn’t really seen him make any mistakes of a sort which was usually what spurred mood swings. Perhaps he had overthought the situation and was underestimating himself? Bokuto was smart and he definitely had the capacity for great things but every now and again his thought processes would go down a less than desirable path and he essentially would worry or panic himself into a frenzy which…

By no means were his emotions and worries invalid. Akaashi wasn’t especially a fan of the mood swings but he trusted that even in the inflation of his emotions he was justified in feeling that way, surely. Akaashi reached over to Bokuto, not entirely where to start if he had any intention of diffusing the situation seeing as he was still huffing and seemingly becoming more upset by the passing second.

“Bokuto, please look at me for a moment,” Akaashi instructed him, to which Bokuto immediately complied.

Bokuto paused his actions like a deer in headlights and looked up at Akaashi.

“Come here.” He instructed Bokuto once more, gesturing for him to walk around and stand next to him. Immediately Bokuto made a face like he knew he had done something wrong and was drowning in guilt but then gradually obeyed and trudged over. Akaashi motioned for him to come in closer and upon doing so Akaashi seized the opportunity and reached over, squishing Bokuto’s face between both his hands on either side of his face. Bokuto shrunk a little in place and squeezed his eyes closed, probably expecting Akaashi to scold him. Akaashi had no intention of any sort to scold him, but rather to calm him down. He waited a good minute or two before Bokuto dared to peep open his eyes at him.

“Akaashi?”

“You’re not in any trouble, just-“Akaashi removed his hands from Bokuto’s face and clasped them gently around his neck, slowly rubbing circles with his thumb over the skin,”-tell me slowly, please, what’s wrong?”

Bokuto fidgeted in place and stacked his hands firmly atop of Akaashi’s.

“I wanted to do stuff with you today, but…I don’t know what to do and I don’t wanna waste the day, so…”

“I would be perfectly content with anything as long as I’m with you.” Akaashi said with a weak smile as he leaned in closer and tugged a little on Bokuto’s neck to pull him forward, touching their foreheads together.

And just like that Bokuto’s mood swing had taken a full turn, instead on the opposite end of the spectrum- the overzealous end.

Bokuto’s eyes lit up and for a moment Akaashi wasn’t entirely sure why the mood swing had been so short lived although he was certainly glad for it. Bokuto reached down and wrapped his arms around Akaashi’s waist as he stared back at him with an undeniable twinkle in his eyes.

“ _Anything_?” Bokuto said with a happy hum and he moved his head and started nuzzling into the crook of Akaashi’s neck.

Albeit a little weary of how limitless the word anything could be (especially as Bokuto’s ideas of fun could run pretty wild) Akaashi turned his head and placed a small peck on Bokuto's head.

“Anything.” He repeated in something of a whisper.

Having said that seemed to rev Bokuto up an absurd amount as he squeezed Akaashi into a tight hug before pulling back just enough to dive back in towards Akaashi for a sloppy kiss, his lips colliding a little more forcefully into Akaahi’s. It wasn’t as though Akaashi had any complaints about it as he returned the gesture by licking Bokuto’s bottom lip just as forcefully (if not also with intentionally slow pace) which sent Bokuto into an anticipated frenzy. Bokuto reached around and firmly threaded his fingers through Akaashi’s locks and tugged his head back as his other hand reached around and gave Akaashi’s ass one _very_ vigorous slap, to which Akaashi let out a much throatier moan than he had control over. Bokuto dipped in once more forcefully for a kiss, skimming his tongue over Akaashi’s teeth in such a way that he had to restrain a shiver. Admittedly Akaashi whimpered a _little_ at Bokuto releasing his grip on him though he was almost positive that he had been heard loud and clear, judging from the way Bokuto simply stood before him and eyed him for a good minute.

“Anything, right?”

Akaashi swallowed hard and rubbed the back of his head where Bokuto’s firm grip had been in close range to only moments before.

“Anything.” Akaashi said slowly as he squirmed in place, watching Bokuto slowly go off like a time bomb before him.

Bokuto hopped forward and clutched Akaashi’s hand, jerking him forward as he hastily led the two of them back and around the corner into the bedroom. Without a moment of hesitation Bokuto drew Akaashi in close and began sucking on his lower lip while utilizing his free hand to palm against the front of Akaashi’s boxers, the heel of Bokuto’s palm grinding slowly against his less than subtle start of a boner. Akaashi growled softly against Bokuto’s mouth as his hips weakly jerked upward to ensure the contact between Bokuto’s palm and his hard on, his own hands scraping with almost equal roughness up Bokuto’s chest. For a moment though his nails scraped a little too hard up his chest and Bokuto whimpered, squirming and taking a small step back which gave both of them a moment to temporarily collect themselves.

Bokuto hastily removed his shirt and the two of them stared at his chest inquisitively, thin pink lines having littered the trail up his chest as a result of Akaashi’s handiwork. Akaashi panicked for a moment and reached over gently, brushing just his fingertips lightly over the lines which elicited a soft hiss from Bokuto as he squeezed his eyes shut.

“I’m really sorry, I’ll go get ice. I didn’t intend to be rough, I-“

“Again. Do it again,” Bokuto growled in a low voice, tracing his fingers over the fresh scratches carefully.

Akaashi blinked in disbelief at Bokuto for a moment.

“You want me to hurt you? Bokuto, I can’t do that. That’s-“

“Nah, you didn’t really hurt me. It’s cool. You should do it again though, because…” Bokuto grinned and peeked down at his own chest with admiration, even going so far as to press delicately along a few pink lines,”…that was _hot_.”

Akaashi’s cheeks immediately became painfully inflamed as a deep blush invaded. Out of the two of them it was rarely Akaashi who did any sort of rough play, generally as the idea of hurting Bokuto physically was a bit overwhelming. Not that he couldn’t bring himself to do it, it was simply out of preference that he didn’t usually go about handling Bokuto rougher. Bokuto could certainly take it as Akaashi would need extra hands to count the number of times Bokuto had injured himself and immediately bounced back to, and yet…

“You seriously want me to be rough?”

“Hell yeah.” Bokuto said with a thumbs up as he reached over and reeled Akaashi in closer by hooking a finger under the waistband of his boxers and tugging him over encouragingly.

Akaashi in turn reached over swiftly and cupped at Bokuto’s crotch where his own boxers were visibly beginning to tent, gripping firmly until he earned a low and guttural noise from Bokuto that was hardly even discernible as human.

“Please get on the bed then, if you will?” Akaashi requested smoothly as he loosened his grip and instead worked his fingers around the outlines in the fabric over the very apparent hard on hiding underneath. He groaned and nodded in compliance so Akaashi pulled his hand back to give Bokuto an opportunity to crawl onto the bed. It was difficult to gauge whether it was an excited or nervous sort of anxious that Bokuto was experiencing as he fidgeted impatiently atop of the bed for Akaashi, who in turn simply stood before him nonchalantly as he contemplated how to logically go about fulfilling Bokuto’s request. He considered making a quick task of the whole thing until he took into consideration how aroused he himself was.

With that in mind, he stepped forward and gestured in the air for Bokuto to turn himself around. Bokuto seemed a little hesitant to the request but obeyed regardless and turned himself so that his back was turned to Akaashi. Akaashi crawled atop of the bed and gently guided Bokuto down and forward by his shoulders so that he was bent before him which made Bokuto fidget. He gently smoothed his hands along Bokuto’s back starting from the small of his back and slowly made his way up to his shoulder blades, cautiously applying enough pressure to his fingertips as he dug his fingernails over Bokuto’s back on the trip back down which earned him a soft moan. With the clear option to end the task there Akaashi dragged his fingernails even further down to his rear until Bokuto squirmed an adequate amount. As Akaashi lifted his hand start over once more Bokuto peeked over his shoulder and pouted.

“Harder.”

“Seriously?” Akaashi asked with a concerned tone.

Bokuto whined and squirmed in place as he attempted to run his fingers over the newly developed scratches that populated his back. Akaashi let out a small sigh and then grasped onto Bokuto with a bit of force as he attempted to position Bokuto properly for something he was almost positive that Bokuto wouldn’t have any qualms over, though Bokuto certainly hadn’t expected to be moved so suddenly and especially into a position where he rested on his stomach. After a number of confused glances from him Akaashi clutched his hips and raised them up manually until Bokuto cooperated and got on all fours, putting the rest of his rear in the air for Akaashi.

“Are you gonna…?”

“Be patient,” Akaashi mumbled as he hooked his index fingers under the elastic waistband of Bokuto’s boxers and tugged them down painstakingly slow, making sure to lean over and place a back and forth combination of kisses and bites to every inch of skin in which Bokuto’s boxers passed over in the process of them being removed. Bokuto whined and gently rocked himself backwards into Akaashi, who in turn lowered himself down and braced Bokuto with his hands gripping each of his thighs securely. Without warning he leaned in and sucked up and down on his thighs until he had left a decent collection of hickeys and marks. Akaashi had no intention of ending there however, and glided his hands up from around Bokuto’s thighs to instead the cleft of his ass and gripped each cheek roughly before spreading them. Akaashi had no need to warn Bokuto as he was sure that he could feel the moment in which Akaashi dipped down and began attacking the puckered skin with an open mouth, making an effort to dip his tongue in just as roughly as Bokuto had requested.

Needless to say Bokuto became vocal incredibly fast.

“ _Akaaaaashiiii_ ,” Bokuto’s moan came out in something of a gurgle.

Akaashi ignored him and plunged his tongue in a few more times with force before Bokuto’s whining couldn’t be ignored any longer as Bokuto pushed himself more forcefully back into Akaashi, clearly hinting for him to go deeper and with more force. That sort of request seemed feasible enough so Akaashi made certain to spread Bokuto’s cheeks father apart and attempted to go as far as he could manage until he came up with a method that was equally fulfilling in wish. He rearranged the placement of his hands until he had one spreading Bokuto enough for proper access as he leaned in carefully after coating his finger with saliva and entered a single finger in nearly to the knuckle and wiggled it. Bokuto groaned and for a split second he spotted Bokuto’s hand creeping up from underneath in an attempt to touch himself but Akaashi removed his hand for spreading Bokuto and reached under, gently squeezing him at the base of his cock to fend off Bokuto’s hand that clearly wasn’t needed. With his other hand he pulled his finger out of Bokuto and quickly replaced it with instead two fingers, carefully scissoring and stretching him until Bokuto was almost rocking himself back onto Akaashi’s fingers desperately. The process of adding a third finger came quite easy as Bokuto did most of the moving on his own, but at which point Bokuto unmistakable howling  atop of it all seemed to be a reasonable place to stop. As he withdrew his fingers from Bokuto who whimpered and lowered his body to the bed as Akaashi paused to strip himself and retrieve the much needed lube and a condom from the bedside drawer, he noticed Bokuto practically _grinding_ his erection into the bed.

Although Akaashi could have watched Bokuto do so for a bit longer, he undeniably had become painfully hard in the process of eating Bokuto out and admittedly needed release almost as badly. After quickly sheathing himself he crawled back onto the bed and helped to flip Bokuto on his back carefully, pumping him a few times beforehand to vaguely gauge how close he was. As Bokuto squirmed immediately at the touch as the head of his cock was red and glossy with precum, Akaashi took note of the short timeframe in which he had left to work with as he lined himself up against his entrance. Bokuto groaned and whined out Akaashi’s name profusely as though it were a curse word as he threw his head back into the mattress and wriggled urgently. Akaashi himself even let out a groan of relief as he slowly and carefully entered before pulling back out hastily all of himself except the head, teasingly moving in and out in small increments until Bokuto was adequately jumpy to the process. Once at such a point Akaashi paused for a moment in the sake of both of them.

Bokuto whimpered and reached down to touch himself but Akaashi intercepted by simply taking a firm hold of him in one hand.

“ _Please_ _let me come_ ,” Bokuto whined as he tried to jerk his hips upwards, clearly attempting to properly thrust himself into Akaashi’s hand.

“Be patient,” Akaashi reminded him as he released his grip on Bokuto and began thrusting into him once more, however making sure to pull back almost entirely and then crash back into him with force which earned him something between a gurgle and a howl-

If they hadn’t been loud enough to disturb the neighbors below them previously, Bokuto had certainly gone and done just that. Akaashi groaned as he felt the pressure of imminent release vacate and coil up in his stomach, noting that Bokuto couldn’t have been too far off himself from his own less than discrete bucking and gyrating of hips under him. He paused for a split second merely to lift Bokuto up a bit, guiding him with a secure grip fixated on his hips which caused Bokuto to arch himself off of the mattress. Akaashi repeated guiding him by his hips until tremors ran loose over Bokuto’s body until Bokuto looked as though he was on the edge of tears. Feeling himself fairly close Akaashi reached over and stroked Bokuto with something of a rhythm until Bokuto came suddenly with a loud cry, shooting his release atop of his own chest and Akaashi following not too long after as he continued to thrust afterwards in attempt to allow both to ride out their orgasms.

As to be expected, Bokuto let out a noisy (though certainly with an undertone of hoarseness) huff and collapsed back onto the mattress once Akaashi had properly pulled out and began the tireless task of cleaning up both of them. The cleaning up was a little rushed as Akaashi’s focus became dedicated to ensuring Bokuto was alright. Akaashi set aside the dirtied washcloth from wiping them off and then sidled up to Bokuto slowly, delicately tracing his fingertips over the number of visible marks and scratches he had been encouraged to litter Bokuto’s body with.

“How are you feeling? Should I get you some water? Ice, anything?” Akaashi whispered into the crook of Bokuto’s neck as he curled up against him and buried his face into Bokuto’s neck.

Bokuto let out a soft laugh and turned his head, peppering kisses of all sorts onto Akaashi’s head.

“I’m fine,” Bokuto swore with his semi-hoarse voice.

Akaashi sighed and made a mental note to make sure Bokuto was taken care of at a later time when he had the energy to cooperate. The two of them had slowly managed to pull the covers back over themselves and had gotten sufficiently comfortable. Bokuto even turned and opened his mouth to say something to Akaashi before he immediately stopped himself at the sound of a mysterious buzzing nearby. Both of them turned and looked at each other before Bokuto made a guilty face.

“It’s Kuroo.”

Luckily the buzzing was short lived and Bokuto was kind enough to relocate his phone to a drawer in which its calls for attention could not be heard. Akaashi almost laughed at the excessive gesture as he knew there wasn’t a chance in the world he’d pick up but that didn’t stop Akaashi from at least appreciating it. To properly show his appreciation he leaned over and planted a kiss on Bokuto’s cheek.

Mood swings and all, Akaashi was perfectly content just like that.

Quirky boyfriend and all.

 

* * *

 

Kuroo wasn’t a morning person.

Somehow though he had managed to convince himself thoroughly that waking up a clearly unnecessary amount of hours earlier than needed prior to his engagement with Nishinoya was appropriate. At first the plan was to meet up with Nishinoya at the café at 3, show him the ropes of how to create a few of the dishes off of the menu, and then properly laze around for the rest of his day off. But no, he had decided to deprive himself the right to sleeping in late and somewhere around three cups of coffee later had begun busying himself in café related matters. Regret for waking up at an inhuman time as he had poorly chosen to do didn’t quite sink in until about his fifth cup of coffee which was all but keeping him from making the proper choice to reunite with his bed. Kuroo had sent Bokuto a few texts about his unusual woe but didn’t expect much of an answer as he knew to expect his preoccupation with Akaashi. It was safe to assume that Bokuto’s attention couldn’t have been shared too evenly between Akaashi and him if Kuroo began impatiently blowing up his phone, so he opted to keep the number of texts to a minimum.

After being awake for more than two hours for the purpose of handling matters related to the café (and an unmentionable amount of coffee later) Kuroo wisely chose to stop himself long enough to actually sort his files and documents to guarantee that his past hours of sorting and reviewing important things wouldn’t have gone to waste. It was an easy enough task and once done Kuroo clasped his hands together and took a moment to check the time, instantly regretting the decision as the clock on the microwave warned him it was noon in a big gaudy blue digital font. He groaned and turned to eye the door to his room, mentally adding up the amount of time he could slip in last minute for a short catnap. His timeframe for such was small and the task itself seemed risky as he remembered the last power nap he had attempted went horribly wrong. Kuroo let out an exasperated sigh and smoothed out the furrowed skin between his brows.

He had enough time leftover to prep for the engagement between Nishinoya and him.

Arriving over to the café by car, Kuroo was pleased to find the café in the same state as Bokuto and he had left it in the previous night. He made his way to the back of the café and entered into the kitchen, taking a quick visual inventory of things he needed for prepping. Kuroo hadn’t entirely planned out which items on the menu for Nishinoya to learn seeing as he would have to learn them all eventually. When he thought about it, he really hadn’t much of any gauge on how well Nishinoya could bake. Surely he had down the basics of baking, as he was a grown adult and being able to make food for himself was a skill that was expected of him- or at least, until Kuroo took into consideration Bokuto, who at first couldn’t tell the difference between baking soda and baking powder. Kuroo had taught Bokuto to bake as well as cook sometime back in their college days, and sure he could bake things off of the menu with ease after a painful amount of training (and replacing of ovens). Granted some of the mistakes had been out of Bokuto’s all too eager desire to please Kuroo which was appreciated, but maybe a little dangerous. Nishinoya was also quite the enthusiastic individual if he recalled correctly, but certainly not at the level of Bokuto (with the exception of that one parkour accident inside the café aside). The longer he thought about how unprepared Nishinoya could be for the task, the more thought Kuroo put into considering essentially babyproofing the kitchen. Kuroo tried reminding himself heavily to have enough faith in Nishinoya-

He _had_ put enough faith in him to give him a promotion, so what was really the worst that could happen?

 

As expected, Nishinoya showed up properly on time about three hours later in front of the café. Kuroo invited him in and locked the front door behind them to avoid unwanted company. Nishinoya immediately stripped himself of his jacket upon entering and hung it sloppily over a booth but Kuroo quickly swooped in and moved it properly to atop of the mini car counter where it wouldn’t be forgotten. All Kuroo had to do was look away for a second and Nishinoya was already in the kitchen without him, though to his relief he was busy gazing in awe at all of the equipment and ingredients before him. Kuroo had to restrain a small snicker at the sight of Nishinoya so utterly absorbed. He had witnessed Nishinoya’s intense focus before but the way that he seemed so taken aback by just a _kitchen_ was a bit humorous. It wasn’t like Kuroo didn’t harbor feelings of endearment for his own kitchen which he had poured more love into than he cared to admit, but after a few years the tantalizing newness of it wore off. Kuroo cleared his throat to discreetly hide a weak laugh and clasped his hands together loud enough to gather Nishinoya’s attention.

“So, are you ready to bake Yuu?”

Unsurprisingly so, Nishinoya excitedly started to bounce on his heels which Kuroo took as a solid yes. Kuroo handed him one of the café menus and gave him a nod which he completely missed.

“I’ll teach you how to make a few dishes for now, but know that it takes time for these things to bake so we’ll be doing a bit of multitasking,” Kuroo warned him as he stepped back over to one of the counters where Kuroo had set up the ingredients for making a number of dishes before realizing that he had forgotten a few things. He turned to find Nishinoya absorbed once more in the menu and whistled at him briefly, then motioned over at the fridge (which may or may not have been only a few feet away from Kuroo).

“Could you fetch the milk from the fridge?”

“No problem,” Nishinoya said as he placed the menu down and wandered over to the fridge.

Kuroo began retrieving measuring cups and bowls from one of the shelves and peeked over his shoulder at Nishinoya to make sure he wasn’t having any difficulty locating the milk. Nishinoya returned with a gallon of milk promptly and handed it over, then planted himself right at Kuroo’s side as Kuroo started shifting around the ingredients on the countertop.

“We’re going to first start on a Boston cream pie because it will take the longest time to prepare and then begin on a strawberry shortcake, and then…I’m thinking key lime pie. That should be simple enough to start with, so…” Kuroo twirled a measuring cup in one hand and then pointed it at Nishinoya, ”-how about you preheat the ovens for me? Set one to 350 and the other to 425, please.”

Nishinoya nodded and fixed himself in front of two neighboring ovens, reaching slowly over across the top area to the variety of buttons from setting preheat on to the timer. His hand halted just about an inch or two before actually touching anything and he stiffened in place, cautiously glancing back over at Kuroo with a confused expression. In a matter of moments his expression went from confusion to guilt and Kuroo hadn’t needed him to say a word for Kuroo to understand the predicament before him. Kuroo sauntered over slowly and ignored Nishinoya’s look of shame, restraining a heavy sigh.

“If you don’t know how to do something, please tell me. There’s no shame in not knowing. Besides, in the beginning of his training Bokuto accidentally killed  _at least_  three of my ovens and while it’s not a competition-“Kuroo gave Nishinoya a painfully serious look to emphasize his point, “-it happens. I'd rather you ask for help than make dangerous assumptions on how stuff works.”

Nishinoya seemed to return to his normal self and perked back up, giving Kuroo an enthusiastic nod. Kuroo reached out to the buttons and began pointing at individual controls.

“You set what you want it to preheat to here, the timer is _here_ \- and it should make an annoying buzz when it has fully preheated. As a future note, _please_ do not set the ovens to ridiculous temperatures in hopes of rushing dishes because that does not work.”

“Oh, of course. That’s common sense.” Nishinoya mumbled but his expression showed some hesitancy toward the truth in Kuroo’s words.

Kuroo pushed the appropriate buttons on both ovens and then walked back to the countertop for preparing the dishes, Nishinoya trailing behind him diligently. From then on Nishinoya seemed to watch his every move in preparation attentively, even moving in a little dangerously close as Kuroo got to work. A number of times Kuroo allowed Nishinoya to help do the mixing and sifting which ended a lot better than expected. In the process he could visibly see Nishinoya grinning from ear to ear as though he was thoroughly enjoying himself to the fullest, even if Kuroo kept him busy with simple tasks. The first dish to be finished was the strawberry shortcake followed by the key lime pie, both of which taking somewhere around an hour to bake. After being left to cool down Nishinoya was allowed to try a slice of both as a reward for his hard work, which he just as enthusiastically agreed to. As Kuroo had warned him however, the Boston cream pie took much longer to bake, almost double the time of the other two dishes. In the extra time to be killed between the first two dishes finishing and waiting on the Boston cream pie, there was something of an awkward atmosphere amongst the two of them. Kuroo had little to nothing to say to Nishinoya during the extra time which left them in almost awkward silence-

Which didn’t surprise Kuroo in the least. He assumed that Nishinoya and he lacked a proper relationship for casual chatter, him being Nishinoya’s boss after all. He wasn’t entirely hurt by that sort of thing but seeing as there was still some time left before the last dish was done he considered at least giving it a shot. If it went poorly, he’d have a funny story to tell Bokuto later.

“Out of curiosity, Yuu, did you celebrate your promotion yet?” Kuroo asked while trying to act as casual as he could which may have come off a little more forced than necessary, but Nishinoya didn’t seem to notice.

“Me? Oh, um…yeah! Sorta. Went out with friends and stuff, so there was that. Had a few drinks-“Nishinoya’s brows furrowed and his expression turned a little sourer, like he had remembered something unpleasant mid thought and frowned,”-…and stuff. Or something.”

“Was it not fun?” Kuroo pointed out and raised an eyebrow warily at him.

“Oh no, it was fun. Just…I dunno.”

Kuroo crossed his arms against his chest and sighed. Out of pure concern for him as his boss, Kuroo shifted his weight as he moved his stance to one more serious.

“What happened?”

Nishinoya opened his mouth but then quickly shut it, making the same guilty face from earlier. His gaze moved around almost everywhere in the kitchen but on Kuroo, which made even Kuroo a little nervous.

“I said a thing to Ryuu and I… _may_ have lied.” Nishinoya said as he squeezed his eyes shut, wincing a little as he spoke. Kuroo had to think for a moment how to properly console Nishinoya, seeing as he was immensely troubled by his own guilt of committing a mere lie. He assumed knowing what sort of lie would’ve helped him know how to deal with said guilt but he anticipated Nishinoya hadn’t mentioned it for a good reason.

"I fail to see why a simple apology and a bit of truth won't amend the situation."

Nishinoya shrugged and let out a small groan.

“I wish it were that easy,” Nishinoya said as he opened his eyes back up and was the first to turn and look when the timer for the Boston cream pie was done.

Kuroo however was the first to check on it and take it out, not wanting Nishinoya to get too excited and accidentally burn himself. Once cooled down to a seemingly safe temperature Kuroo let Nishinoya finish up with the filling and frosting as he watched from afar. His frosting skills were lacking and his cutting was a bit shaky, but all in all he was admittedly off to a good start. Kuroo cut him a slice of it and Nishinoya happily lit up, little to no hesitation about stuffing it into his mouth (he may or may not have almost choked a bit in the process). Kuroo looked at the clock in the kitchen warily and decided that it was probably a good time to call it a day, seeing as he was verging upon ruining both their appetites for the evening by allowing the two of them to fill up unnecessarily on baked goods. He waved at Nishinoya to grab his attention once more.

“Tomorrow I’ll make a new batch tomorrow so I don’t need these. Would you care to take any of this home…?”

“Wait, like- I can take _all_ of this home?” Nishinoya said in such a tone of disbelief that it was almost as if he didn't trust Kuroo to be kind, which admittedly was a little hurtful.

“Indeed. You can use some of the containers in the back as long as you return them tomorrow, alright?”

“Yeah, no problem!” Nishinoya said as he almost skipped back to where Kuroo left a stack of containers which were most generally used for storing dishes during the day in since Kuroo found leaving dishes out in the open a bit distasteful.

He watched Nishinoya’s all too eager trip to make sure he was looking in the correct spot. He did find the containers with ease but after managing to carry a few he seemed fascinated with a certain something in the back. Kuroo sighed and made his way over slowly, wondering if Bokuto or he had left something unusual in the back. Much to his surprise (and relief) Nishinoya was simply eyeing the flower that Asahi had sent him the other day. Kuroo had yet to truthfully find a good place for it between the neighborhood cats he took care of on occasion having a knack for destroying the flowers from Asahi and Akaashi not being comfortable with accepting Kuroo’s flowers (only after Bokuto went and blabbed about Asahi). Admittedly leaving the flower in the back of his kitchen wasn’t the soundest place to keep a flower, but it wasn’t like taking it home for the neighborhood cats to feast upon was any better a fate.

“It’s the petunia from Asahi.” Nishinoya mumbled, almost reaching out in a trance like way toward the delicate petals.

“It is. I can’t find a good home for it, so for now it’s just sort of…”Kuroo loosely gestured in a way of showing his vagueness, “here.”

“Oh.”

Nishinoya frowned and tilted his head, lightly turning the pot on the counter so it could get a slightly less sad amount of light from the overhead kitchen lights. Kuroo shook his head, almost feeling sorry for the flower until it dawned on him.

“Would you care to take it home with you? It’s fairly low maintenance,” Kuroo suggested as he gestured at the potted flower, to which Nishinoya made a surprised then bashful expression in a matter of seconds.

“What? _Me_ take _this_? I mean, I…” Nishinoya fidgeted in place and keep looking back and forth between the flower and Kuroo,”…I mean, what am I gonna do with a flower?”

Kuroo blinked for a moment at Nishinoya blankly.

“Casually hand it off to Ryuu while you apologize?”

“I’m not so sure it works like that.”

“Give it to him and announce your extremely platonic love for him-“

“Hold on, we are _just_ -“

Kuroo raised both of his hands up in front of himself and cut both of them off, choosing to ignore Nishinoya’s flushed face.

“Or, you know. Bring it into your apartment like a normal person and care for it. There’s nothing abnormal about caring for a flower.”

Nishinoya gaped at Kuroo for a good minute while Kuroo made a stern face at him to discourage any sort of backtalk. Once Nishinoya seemed done trying to fight Kuroo on whatever they were even managing to argue about, Kuroo smiled and gave him a thumbs up. Rather than a look of defeat Nishinoya seemed oddly relieved and held the potted flower in one hand as though it were a football and held the containers in the other hand normally. Kuroo didn’t even hold strong feelings for the plant but watching how Nishinoya handled the potted flower made him cringe. Kuroo afterwards began working arduously at scrubbing down the utensils and countertop in which the dishes had been prepared on, not fond of having a dirtied workspace. Meanwhile Nishinoya carefully packed up the desserts and readied himself to leave though it wasn’t long before he apparently had to leave in something of a rush. Kuroo remembered to unlock the café door for him before he had to leave.

Before Nishinoya was completely gone however he _may_ have slipped in a casual comment about how Asahi would appreciate the flower finally being in good hands-

After all, the flower wasn’t about to be a meal for a pack of felines nor be imprisoned any longer in a kitchen under improper lighting. Kuroo assumed that Nishinoya would genuinely appreciate the comment but to his surprise it instead left Nishinoya extremely flustered, making his exit out of the café all the hastier as he once more to Kuroo’s dismay improperly toted the potted flower recklessly as he bolted out faster than Kuroo expected him to be able to go.

 

Kuroo merely watched the scene in slight awe and confusion.

He really wasn’t sure whether to be more concerned about the well-being of Nishinoya or the flower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someday you will be properly appreciated Kuroo.  
> I like my Akaashi to be understanding and supportive of Bokuto, even if he's an overly anxious dork. Also, a switch.  
>  ~~Excuse me while I go dive into an active volcano because smut is clearly not my strong suit~~  
>  (⊃ω⊂)


	6. Stranger Things Have Happened

Kageyama was by nature a workaholic.

Any normal person would've been relieved to be set free after two back to back twenty four hour shifts, probably setting themselves up for a well-deserved rest. But then, there was Kageyama and Kageyama by no means intended on resting just yet.

Come Monday evening directly off his last shift Kageyama had decided to spend his time off from firefighting to work out at the gym, needing some serious downtime to de-stress and unwind from a previously erratic shift. They hadn't exactly been on call too frequently which was a relief but Kageyama wasn't able to mentally settle down even once while he was over at the firehouse. Something about never knowing when he would be needed whether it was saving a life or dealing with false alarms, Kageyama was completely unable to dismiss his uneasiness and anticipation that kept him well awake all too frequently. He had consulted the chief a number of times only to be told to wear himself out properly through exercise and so Kageyama often did so-not that he had any complaints in the least. He trusted the judgement of the chief and it wasn't like Kageyama didn't mind toning up a bit more before his next long shift, even if admittedly his biceps weren't going to overnight become comparable to the chief’s.

He could dream though, imagining the look on everyone’s face if he could finally beat him at arm wrestling.

Kageyama all too eagerly signed in at the front desk at the gym and the receptionist gave him a weird look which he ignored, happily occupying a space close to the bars for chin-ups. He neatly set his things in a way so that he wouldn’t disturb other and then readied himself under the bar, holding the bar with a firm underhand grip as his palms faced toward him. He huffed a little at the initial startup and shock of tension on his biceps but immediately adjusted himself and continued on, mentally counting each time he pulled his weight up so that his chin passed the bar. Ten, twenty, the numbers smoothly added up in his head as his upper arms faintly tingled at the repeated motion of pulling himself up on the bar. He had done this a number of times so naturally it came with some ease until he reached somewhere around forty and felt an adequate burn along his upper arms, cueing him to take at the very least a break. Kageyama wasn't entirely sure why a few nearby other members were gawking at him, it wasn't like he had broken any rules. He definitely hadn't done anything foreign, just a few chin-ups and he was sure his form had been correct the whole time. But then it dawned on him-

Maybe he was unconsciously making a bitter face? The deputy chief and chief both reminded him time to time about him making awful faces which he certainly had little control over. His heart immediately sunk in a moment of hyper awareness and Kageyama turned away from them and gathered his belongings, hoping to move away from unwanted attention. Before that though it occurred to him to properly wipe off the bar he had previously used, knowing that in all fairness he wouldn't want to discover his next station grossly buttered up with sweat just as much as the next person. Once he wiped it off completely Kageyama gathered his belongings once more and started wandering through the gym, a bit hesitant to bother going up a floor to the treadmills and apparatus of the like. A few other people casually pushed past him as he stood in the middle of the staircase, snapping back into reality as he realized he was in the way of others. Kageyama sluggishly made his way up the stairs and was almost at the top but just as he stepped over the gap between the last step and the carpeting to the second floor he bumped moderately hard into someone else and out of reflex Kageyama scowled. It was a reflex and nothing more, no true malice behind his gesture and yet that didn't make accidentally bumping into the deputy chief of all people any better.

If anything, it made it all the worse.

In the split second that it took the deputy chief to recognize him Kageyama hastily tried to cover his mouth and dismiss his scowl discreetly.

“Tobio.” The deputy chief stated in a confused tone, even tilting his head at Kageyama.

“Deputy Chief Oikawa,” Kageyama mumbled as he removed his hand from his mouth and dipped his head in a small nod.

“Oi, I’ve told you all that's not necessary,” he corrected Kageyama quickly while flashing him a big grin.

Kageyama nodded and while pleased to know that he hadn't accidentally upset him, he felt equally confused to see Oikawa at the gym. Not that it hadn't happened before but the sheer chance of seeing him so soon after a long shift felt peculiar, like their paths just weren't meant to have crossed again so soon. Kageyama opened his mouth to ask him how he was doing, though he was definitely more interested in what sort of regimen he was following. Kageyama undoubtedly admired him strongly for his courage and dedicated work ethics, even if Kageyama had the intention of eventually moving up to being a deputy chief himself, a much better one even someday. Oikawa was a really good leader and while sometimes Kageyama couldn't help but feel like there was something of bad blood between them (he couldn't ever put his finger on why either), Oikawa was a good guy. Kageyama tried smiling though with Oikawa’s reaction he knew to anticipate a warning about his expression, though Oikawa hadn't gotten to even push out a single syllable before he was being scolded by afar.

“There you are, shittykawa. You move too damn fast.”

Kageyama straightened up his posture at the sound of the chief. The heckle hadn't been aimed at him but even he could feel the annoyance flowing in his words. Though slow in pace the chief made his way over to Oikawa and him, tossing a towel over his right shoulder as he glared at Oikawa. Oikawa completely pivoted around and gestured for him a friendly and all too familiar peace sign.

“Or maybe you move too slow, Iwa-chan. We may never know.” Oikawa said back cheerfully and Kageyama restrained a reaction of any sort, knowing Oikawa was the only one allowed to get away with back talking the chief.

“Well maybe if _someone_ had remembered to clean off their equipment when they were done I wouldn't have taken so long,” the chief growled.

“What are you, my mom?”

Without a moment of hesitation the chief removed his towel off his shoulder and twisted it into a dangerously tight rat’s tail and whipped it against Oikawa’s arm, eliciting a loud yelp from him as Oikawa pouted and rubbed at his fake wound.

“So cruel, Iwa-chan…” Oikawa whimpered as he rubbed his arm.

“Yeah, yeah. Be more responsible next time or I'll seriously kick your ass,” the chief warned Oikawa but even Kageyama could tell there was no true nastiness hidden in his words. In response Oikawa jokingly continued to bicker back and forth with the chief so Kageyama took the clear hint to leave. He carefully begun stepping around Oikawa as not to disturb either of them but it was a failed attempt as immediately the chief spotted Kageyama mid-creep around Oikawa.

“Oh, Kageyama. I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” he said as his lips curled into a small smile, which may or may not have made Kageyama feel a little flustered.

Kageyama nodded and scratched the nape of his neck where he could feel heat rising under his skin at an unpleasant speed.

“I just got off that last shift so I thought-“

The chief reached over and patted him on the shoulder firmly.

“I’m not going to scold you, just…take it easy, alright?”

“I only did a few chin-ups.” Kageyama didn't hesitate to point out obediently.

The chief’s smile curled up even wider, a few of his teeth showing as he grinned and let out a low chuckle. Without skipping a beat he even reached over and jokingly (and surprisingly gently) squeezed Kageyama’s left bicep with one hand. The dull aching from before resurfaced but it wasn’t anything serious enough to strike concern within Kageyama as the chief pulled back his hand.

“It’s always wise to work on your biceps and shoulders. You never know when you may have a lot of stress on your back during a call. Unless, of course…” the chief snorted and crossed his arms against his chest,”…you’re itching to try and buff up before our next arm wrestling match.”

Kageyama tried to hold it back, but he could feel himself at least a _little_ giddy from the attention. The chief was always this pleasant but normally Kageyama would have to fight Kunimi or Kindaichi for his attention. Or worse so, he’d have to compete with Oikawa and that often didn’t end without the two of them both getting in some sort of trouble.

“It’s a possibility,” Kageyama said in return with a weak smirk, watching as the chief chuckled even more.

Lacking a proper warning, Oikawa swung an arm around Kageyama’s shoulder and squeezed the same bicep that the chief had. Kageyama flinched a little and fought to restrain it, trying not to seem too caught off guard by the unexpected touch.

“If you want to beat Iwa-chan, you’re gonna have to try a lot harder than that. Look at you,” Oikawa said with a hum as he poked the bicep.

The chief looked back and forth between Oikawa and Kageyama, quietly glaring for the most part in confusion at Oikawa.

“Hey now, it's not like you build it all overnight. I'm sure you're doing fine-“

“I've got an idea, why don't you train with me Tobio? We can do some upper body stuff together.” Oikawa cut in over the chief.

For a split second Kageyama thought there was something weird in his tone but immediately dismissed it, knowing it was a rare occurrence for Oikawa to offer for him to tag along at all. The chief seemed just as taken aback as Kageyama by the offer, but he saw no reason to decline.

“Sounds good,” Kageyama said as he looked over at Oikawa, who in turn rewarded him with a wide grin.

 

Kageyama allowed Oikawa to show the way and behind them faithfully tagged the chief, mumbling something about having to make sure Oikawa didn't do anything reckless. Oikawa made himself comfortable at a weight machine after securing the weights needed for it. Kageyama occupied a weight machine next to him and put in the same weight- it wasn’t like they were having a competition so there was no need to try and outweigh him. Oikawa seemed cozy enough lifting and pulling the weights on his machine so Kageyama decided to copy him, which came a bit easier than expected. From a few feet away the chief was leaned carefully against an unused machine and watched the two of them closely.

“You know, if you’re gonna just stand over there like that Iwa-chan-” Oikawa started to say in a sing-song voice as he paused with his weights, then cupped his own face in an overly dramatic fashion,”-you could at least cheer us on.”

The chief huffed and began twisting his towel into a tight rat’s tail again which motivated Oikawa to return to hauling his weights. Kageyama merely continued on with tending to his own weights for a few more minutes before Oikawa paused again, gesturing for Kageyama’s attention.

“I’m really not feeling the burn, you know? How about some push-ups and crunches?” Oikawa suggested flatly.

Kageyama shrugged and began putting his weight machine and the stack of weights he had been using back to where he found them. He hadn’t done any crunches in quite a while, though the idea of push-ups made him a little wary. He _had_ just been working on his biceps and so the burn would definitely be prominent. On the other hand, it wasn’t like it was everyday he got a chance to work out alongside the deputy chief.

Oikawa had positioned himself on a cleared part of the floor for push-ups and Kageyama readied himself at his side. Oikawa huffed and powered through at least ten push-ups (which Kageyama may have spaced out slightly watching in awe) but then looked at Kageyama with a huge grin. Kageyama was almost about to replicate Oikawa’s speeding through push-ups until he felt a sharp tinge spark through his arm, making him a tad shaky on the way back down. He bit his lower lip nervously and hoped that no one had seen that. It wasn’t as though he had actually hurt himself, but the sensation of tightness spurred along his upper arms. Kageyama huffed and continued to push himself up from the ground though his wobbling seemed to grow slightly more conspicuous by the second as Oikawa noticed.

“What’s wrong Tobio, ready to stop?” Oikawa asked him in a low tone to which Kageyama would’ve responded to if something about the way Oikawa asked hadn’t made him a bit uneasy.

“I’m fine,” Kageyama blurted out, trying to sell the half-lie by continuing his push-ups.

The chief squatted down to their eye level and frowned at both of them.

“This isn’t a competition, you can stop at any time,” the chief warned both of them while giving Kageyama an especially stern glance.

“I’m fine,” Kageyama repeated himself as he intentionally slowed down the pace of his push-ups.

“Tobio was just doing chin-ups earlier, so this should be nothing. Right?” Oikawa asked in a sing-song voice that earned him a glare from the chief.

Kageyama nodded, feeling a pang of regret pooling up in his gut. His elbows and forearms were soon begging him to stop but something about the way Oikawa kept speaking to him was a bit unsettling and condescending rolled into one. The chief had clearly said it wasn’t a competition but Oikawa’s tone said otherwise. Admittedly Kageyama _knew_ it was ridiculous of him to think that he would be able to beat Oikawa in push-ups. The soreness in his arms were clear proof if the shakiness wasn’t enough in itself, and yet he dared to take the bait. Push-ups were a small struggle as his chest felt heavier than normal, his arms faltering slightly in the quick motions Kageyama was trying to muster up.

“ _That’s enough_.” the chief growled in a deep voice that hitched a line of goosebumps down Kageyama’s spine.

Oikawa and Kageyama both stopped and looked at the chief who was adequately pissed to say the least. Kageyama meant to sit himself up but his palms slipped just enough for him to land on his chest, his arms awkwardly at his sides. Just as his embarrassment began to flood his system Oikawa snorted a little and the chief slapped his shoulder without hesitation.

“I can’t watch this anymore, that’s enough push-ups for _both_ of you,” the chief said bitterly as he rose to his feet and dragged Oikawa up with him by the collar of his shirt, then offered his hand out to Kageyama.

“Relax Iwa-chan. No one got hurt.” Oikawa mumbled as he gestured to Kageyama who simply hummed unhappily and turned his face to the ground.

Kageyama mentally scolded himself for taking on Oikawa, having anticipated it to end poorly. Between the embarrassment of being stuck on the ground and losing to Oikawa in something that hadn’t even been _meant_ to be a competition, Kageyama didn’t want to show his face. He could hear a faint huff and pop of joints when the chief kneeled down to him. Kageyama could feel his calloused hands fleeting all over him from his head to his arms, probably making sure Kageyama hadn’t died.

“Are you going to be alright?”

Kageyama nodded his head and albeit shakily, rose back up to an actual sitting pose. The chief reached over and ruffled his hair briefly before standing back up and offering a hand once more to Kageyama. Kageyama managed to pull himself up at least a good portion of the way with his assistance and then let go, stumbling back in step ever so slightly. Oikawa couldn’t get in one more comment before the chief apologized for him and dragged him off forcefully and away by the collar of his shirt. Kageyama let out a sigh of deep relief once the two of them had left the room up until he snapped back into reality, feeling the surging tautness along his arms. Imagining how unpleasant the rest of the evening dealing with sore arms would be, Kageyama almost wanted to beat himself over the head for letting himself act so carelessly.

 

As to be expected, the trip home from the gym wasn’t pleasant. On the bus he could feel people staring at him which he did his best to ignore as his best guess as to why was he was probably making a bitter face, which was much out of his control with the amount of discomfort he experienced. Each time another passenger brushed too harshly past his arms he couldn’t help but bite back a groan, trying his best to hold back something of soon to flare temper. The stops took too long to pass through and the bus became immensely crowded much to his despise, to which Kageyama decided to allow himself off early to avoid any further unwanted touching. On the Brightside of everything, his legs weren’t fatigued enough that he found himself in need of any breaks or rest-stops during the trip. It wasn’t to say though that his legs weren’t somewhat tired from his consecutive shifts at the firehouse, but at least they managed to uphold him until he reached the apartment complex. The stairs made Kageyama a bit nervous and so he practically latched onto the side railing the whole walk up, and much to his luck no one was present to watch his awkward ascension up to the third floor. Once his feet were officially planted upon the third floor’s hallway Kageyama let out a heavy sigh and surveyed the floor.

No one else was lurking around the hallway but him so he sluggishly plopped himself in front of his apartment door, taking a few minutes to relax and collect himself. He reached over and rubbed his arms but it only ignited the soreness so he withdrew his hands quickly and dropped them back to his sides. While he still found it in himself to mentally punish himself for taking on Oikawa, Kageyama could at least relish in the fact that he wouldn’t have another shift for a few days and would have time to recover. He sighed and rested his head back against his door and crossed his arms. Although the door wasn’t entirely comfortable to rest against, Kageyama managed to find himself somewhat at peace after closing his eyes for a few minutes.

And in the blink of an eye Kageyama’s sense of tranquility was thrown out the window however, as he could hear someone loudly _hopping_ up the stairway.

He didn’t even need to peek over to recognize the presence of a certain ginger.

 

* * *

 

Hinata had seen a lot of peculiar things at work previously that evening, ranging anywhere from dolphins giving birth to seeing one of the new assistants _almost_ get away with messing around with the younger dolphins in the main tank. Almost being the key word, because Hinata wouldn’t stand for someone messing with the dolphins on his watch (although the bigger concern was how they even became qualified in the first place). A number of odd things always happened at work, with the new assistants always messing up feeding schedules and freaking out in the slightest if they were required to touch any sort of aquatic mammal- and it was their _job_ to handle and research these said aquatic mammals, so it made absolutely no sense why they became so cowardly. However-

Nothing prepared him on his way home to find Kageyama waiting around against his own apartment door.

Hinata couldn’t quite shake the feeling, but something felt off about whatever he was looking at. It wasn’t like Kageyama really looked beat up, but he definitely was out cold. If Hinata got up close he figured he would be able to gauge if Kageyama was still breathing. He wasn’t best buddies with the local sourpuss, but it seemed kinda messed up to go and _not_ check on him. The neighbors probably wouldn’t do anything to him so Hinata could easily rule out the chances of Kageyama getting jumped or anything while out like that, and yet he couldn’t just _leave_ him there. Hinata swallowed a heavy breath of air and puffed out his chest, slowly tiptoeing over to and slightly hovering over Kageyama’s body. Much to his relief (and also his surprise) Kageyama had enough energy to peek up at Hinata after stifling a quiet groan, with the expected accompaniment of a glare. Well, maybe not a glare but he was certainly giving Hinata a weird look.

“Why are you doing?” Kageyama asked him in a low voice, rubbing the corners of his eyes lazily with the heels of his palms.

“I was just making sure you weren’t dead.” Hinata blurted out with a shrug.

Kageyama paused and looked dead-on at Hinata for a few seconds before making a face like he was trying to express his confusion properly.

“I was resting.”

Hinata backed up a few steps and crossed his arms against his chest, pouting a little.

“How was I supposed to know?” Hinata mumbled.

Kageyama rolled his eyes and huffed, then quickly began to rise to his feet. The process seemed a little wobbly (though probably because of that so called nap) but all in all he seemed to have it under control and Hinata was already pivoted around and about to leave, up until Kageyama let out an awful noise. Hinata whipped his head back around to look at Kageyama who was making the terrible sounds, feeling uneasiness coil up in his gut. He just seemed to be supporting himself against the wall of the hallway just fine and yet for some reason he was making pained noises. Something about it didn’t sit well with Hinata so he edged up next to Kageyama and held out his hand.

“Do you need help?”

“I’m fine.” Kageyama mumbled as he pushed himself off and away from the wall with a few short inhales and hisses of air through his teeth under his breath. Hinata shot him a look of heavy disbelief and offered both his hands out to Kageyama.

“Doesn’t seem like it,” Hinata chimed in, stepping in an inch closer.

“I am perfectly fine. I’m just-“Kageyama stepped away from the wall and went to bend over to grab his bag, only to freeze and curse under his breath while clutching onto his bag, “- _fine._ See?”

“You're not very convincing. Just let me open your door or carry your bag for you,” Hinata insisted, growing slowly more impatient with Kageyama’s resistance to help.

Kageyama huffed and avoided Hinata’s gaze, lifting up his bag with a bit of trouble. Once the bag was lifted up he tried slinging the strap over his shoulder but immediately he wobbled forward under the weight and Hinata launched himself also forward with his hands out and open, his palms facing up as if he were trying to catch him-

It took both of them a moment to process as Hinata might’ve launched himself forward a _few_ inches too far however and quickly found himself actually touching Kageyama, his hands making contact with Kageyama’s arm and Hinata’s face within a dangerous range to his. For a second Hinata could’ve sworn that based upon his expression Kageyama would’ve fought him, had he the energy.

“ _What are you_ -“

“You were gonna fall!” Hinata yelped as he withdrew his hands and looked away from Kageyama’s face while slinking in reverse.

After a good minute of silence, Kageyama let out a large groan and then tried to unsling the strap of the bag from his shoulder (though with some visible difficulty) and then attempted to casually hand it off to Hinata.

“If you run off with my bag, I’m going to kick your ass.” Kageyama growled as he rubbed his arm in which the bag had been unslung from carefully with one hand, flinching a bit as his fingers ran over his skin.

Hinata opened his mouth to tell bicker with him, but the way Kageyama cringed in discomfort redirected his thoughts and urge to argue. It wasn’t an explicitly pained expression, but it did faintly remind him of the many faces of distress Kenma made when he typically wasn't feeling well. Perhaps he was so bitter because he also wasn’t feeling well? Hinata’s lips twisted into a frown as he leaned in closer to look to Kageyama who glared at him for daring to inch any closer.

“What’d you do?”

Kageyama scowled and stopped rubbing his arm.

“Gym.” Kageyama whispered, his voice barely audible.

And like that, a lightbulb lit up in Hinata’s head. Kageyama was in a sour mood because he was sore or sleepy, Hinata was almost willing to bet. He carefully returned Kageyama’s bag on the floor and then held up both hands in front of himself and began to gesture to loosely command Kageyama to stay put.

“If you stay right here, I can get you something for muscle pain,” Hinata offered, knowing the feeling all too well from the repercussions of having to help lift heavy equipment at work.

“I have ice or whatever inside. I can handle it.” Kageyama countered with a lack of enthusiasm.

“It’ll only take me a second!” Hinata said as he bolted past Kageyama and down the hallway to his own apartment door without giving Kageyama a moment to counter, somehow unlocking it in record time and pushing the door wide open behind him.

He dropped his own bag on the floor halfway between the living room and bathroom, scurrying at a dangerous speed into the actual bathroom. The height difference wasn’t too great between Hinata and Kenma but Kenma typically made sure to leave everything in the medicine cabinet as low in shelving as possible for him, _just in case of emergency_ he would say. Hinata tried not to sweep everything off of the shelving to find the muscle rub, but it was slightly inevitable with its placement in the farthest back corner. Afterwards he tried neatly placing medicine bottles back in their respective places, knowing it would more than likely freak Kenma out to see it disorderly out of the blue. Hinata started to sprint out of the bathroom and then around the corner, almost tripping over his own poorly placed down bag but not before _actually_ tripping mid-step into the living room upon seeing Kageyama awkwardly standing a few feet into their apartment past the front doorframe. He looked incredibly uncomfortable as he gazed around the room like he was lost and out of place, which he arguably was. Hinata opened his mouth to ask what even happened but then his gaze met Kageyama’s and Kageyama stiffened up and averted his gaze over his shoulder and out into the hallway.

“I couldn’t just loiter in the hallway. I didn’t want to block someone’s path so…I….” He quietly trailed off in thought.

Hinata shook his head in disbelief. It was hard to wrap his head around his sourpuss neighbor trying to be considerate of others, but he tried to take into consideration that it was more than likely due to his discomfort. After all, Hinata had heard of dying people getting friendly and mellow. Kageyama turned his head back to Hinata and squeezed his eyes closed, biting his bottom lip with a wince.

“Hinata.”

Hinata composed himself immediately and hopped over his bag to Kageyama, sticking a clean landing before him. He handed the container of muscle rub over to Kageyama who simply looked at it in confusion, then back to Hinata repeatedly.

“Have you…never used it before?” Hinata asked him cautiously.

“Of course. I just…” Kageyama furrowed his brows as he stared at the container like it had wronged him in some way.

“Do you need help?” Hinata asked almost out of reflex.

Kageyama gaped at Hinata for a while and then seemed to struggle to open his mouth and give Hinata a painfully quiet yes. Hinata tried gently ushering him in to sit down on the living room floor (he didn’t want to make a mess on the chairs) but Kageyama put up enough subtle resistance that Hinata allowed him to sit on the couch. He had a feeling he would regret helping Kageyama further, but he had dug his own grave so deeply at that point that there was way he could really back out of the task. Not that it was overall a painful task as it was obscure, considering that Hinata and he weren’t exactly more than neighbors. In the full year or so that Kenma and he had been in their apartment they hadn’t really learned much about Kageyama aside from his apparent need to interfere with their possessed smoke alarm issue, so it wasn’t like interactions between them happened a lot. As a result, Hinata and he didn’t really have a lot in common as far as he knew and so the awkwardness of helping Kageyama was only increased as neither of them knew how to break the silence. Hinata avoided eye contact with him as he opened the container of muscle rub and gestured in the air for him to remove his shirt, having assumed that Kageyama didn’t want to make a mess on his shirt. Kageyama slowly complied and removed his shirt with an uncomfortable hiss under his breath, placing it next to him on the couch.

It wasn’t like there was anything indecent about Kageyama showing off his shirt but Hinata was _definitely_ taken aback.

What exactly did Kageyama do for a living, workout? His chest was well toned like he was one of those actors on workout machinery advertisements, although not to extent where he looked painfully pumped full of steroids. Hinata wasn’t sure how much Kageyama had worked out to hurt himself but if his chest wasn’t a good indication of how intense Kageyama was then he didn’t know what was. Hinata snapped out of staring at his chest and looked up at him as Kageyama cleared his throat loudly and scratched his fairly pink and inflamed cheeks.

“You better be gentle.” Kageyama snapped, though a few seconds later in an almost faint voice he slipped in a small (and stuttered) please.

“Relax, I’ve got this. Kenma sits funny all the time, so I’ve gotten pretty good at gentle massages,” Hinata said while waving his free hand dismissively, to which Kageyama perked up with a look of confusion.

“Kenma? The guy who…um…” Kageyama gaped at Hinata slowly as he struggled to finish his thought.

“My guy who lives with me. My best friend.” Hinata chirped as he dabbed the oils on his fingertips and lightly spread it over Kageyama’s arms, trying to be delicate but the noise that slipped out of Kageyama’s mouth made him dubious.

“He’s really-“Kageyama let out another groan even though Hinata’s fingertips weren’t touching him so it was safe to assume the oils had started to kick in quickly,”- _really_ shy or something. What’s up with that?”

Hinata shrugged and tried not to cover Kageyama’s upper chest area with a gross amount of the oils.

“Kenma’s pretty introverted, but there’s also the fact that you sometimes make some really scary faces.”

Hinata didn’t even need to look up to feel Kageyama’s eyes burning a hole through him. It wasn’t exactly a lie either, Kageyama made some pretty nasty faces. Kenma was already pretty iffy about eye contact and basically all that Kageyama was whenever he was rubbed the wrong way, which was definitely part of Kenma’s innate wariness of him.

“ _I can’t help it_.” Kageyama snapped, fidgeting in his seat.

Hinata gave him a small shrug and stood up to go wash his hands, finding slight difficulty in rising to his feet as he couldn’t make use of his sticky hands. Once he was on his feet he could see Kageyama frowning, but directed at the floor rather than at Hinata. Maybe telling him his face was scary came out a little meaner than intended…

“I mean, um…it’s not like you’re entirely as scary as you look though. I mean, you always come over in time to put out our kitchen fires-“

“It’s impossible to miss the smoke billowing out of your windows every other week.” Kageyama barked with a quick roll of his eyes.

“W-well! Maybe if we didn’t have a moody smoke alarm…”

“You haven’t been tampering with it, have you? _I swear to god, if you've been_ -“

“I can’t even reach it, so how on earth would I mess with it?” Hinata cut in as he scurried over to wash off his hands to wash away the momentary burning sensation from the oils.

Kageyama leaned forward into a sort of hunch as he bit his lip and dipped his head, clenching his hands into fists slowly. Hinata hadn’t put on a great deal of oils out of mercy but the oils themselves showed no mercy to Kageyama from the looks of it. He shifted on the couch slowly in discomfort but it wasn’t like there was any sort of interception Hinata could have beyond dousing him in water and wasting both the oils and time-

Which reminded Hinata immediately to check the time. It was easily past eight and it dawned on him that not only had he not made dinner of any sort for Kenma but he very clearly had Kageyama (and shirtless atop of everything) of all unannounced guests in their living room.

Not having dinner ready was one thing, but having Kageyama of all people over without a heads up was sure to throw Kenma for a mildly unpleasant curveball. His imagination exploded for a split second full of scenarios in which Kenma would have a panic attack or bad anxiety spell just seeing Kageyama in their apartment. In a moment of valuing Kenma’s sake over Kageyama’s, Hinata glanced over and tried to figure out how much longer Kageyama would need to be in the apartment for. The full effects of the oils would be gone and over with in a good twenty minutes, but surely they would dry out or be absorbed completely before then? Hinata had been on an unprecedented roll of kindness in helping Kageyama (at least in his books) and while it felt weird to break the streak and suddenly boot him out, if Kenma came home and saw Kageyama it wouldn’t end in a happy Kenma to say the least. Hinata nervously checked the clock again and then strode over to Kageyama in what he hoped looked inconspicuous enough of a way, and cleared his throat. Kageyama peeked up through his bangs at Hinata and he could see the sheer exhaustion reflected in his eyes and partially limp posture. Booting Kageyama out was maybe a bit more difficult than expected.

“So…um. I was wondering if you needed help getting back to your apartment?” Hinata mumbled with a small wince.

Kageyama’s posture relaxed, his shoulders dropping down and every part of him just subtly lost tension before him. He slowly moved his head in something of a nod and Hinata helped him to his feet once Kageyama had squirmed back into his shirt. With their height difference and Kageyama’s lack of energy the task of helping escort Kageyama back home was not an easy one. In fact the initial first steps were clumsy and Kageyama almost tripped forward thanks to a brief misstep. They were close to making it out of the living room when Kageyama nearly tripped over Hinata’s bag, to which Hinata cursed at his own lack of tidiness with a quick kicking aside to his own bag. Cooperating in step with him was almost as bad as trying to run a three-legged race, but lacking in anything to cement the two of them together for better balance. The lack of balance wasn’t too consequential until they got out and into the hallway where Kageyama finally _did_ full on trip, naturally taking Hinata completely face first to the ground with him. Hinata’s reflexes were decent enough that he almost was able to catch Kageyama but it did little good between his weight and size difference as he nearly squished Hinata underneath him. Hinata squirmed out from underneath him and reached over to gently touch Kageyama, checking to see if he had reinjured himself from the sudden drop. Kageyama rubbed his head as he came to alertness but didn’t snap at Hinata.

Instead, he looked like a deer in headlights past Hinata.

Hinata peeked over his shoulder, his heart and stomach both dropping in on fell swoop as he locked eyes with Kenma who was frozen mid-step halfway down the hallway. Kenma looked absolutely petrified as his body seemed locked up from head to toe with his limbs tightly pulled in as close to his body as possible and Hinata assumed it was because of Kageyama staring him down, knowing how much Kenma was scared of Kageyama without him unnecessarily adding in unwanted eye contact in his direction. Hinata turned his torso and waved a hand in front of Kageyama’s face to waver his stare but as he did from his peripheral he could see a glimpse of Kenma darting away back down to the staircase.

 _Shit_.

Hinata scrambled to his feet and hightailed after Kenma with all his might.

 

* * *

 

Kenma needed a moment.

Whether it was to breathe, think, or completely avoid having a full-on anxiety attack, he wasn’t entirely sure but he _did_ know that he needed a time out. His mind was too busy panicking to make sense of how fast down the staircase he descended, or if he was even on the brink of missing a step in his rush. The rest of his body was in no better a condition as his breathing was short and the sound of his pulse was drowning out the sound of everything else. His heartbeat felt heavy and strained through his chest, his throat and lungs no longer wanting to cooperate in unison.

He felt like he was suffocating.

As Kenma ran one hand had been secured at the strap of his messenger bag while his other clutched his chest, his fingers tightly clenched up in the fabric of his jacket as though to calm himself by busying his hands. After he had reached what seemed like the first floor of the building, for a split second Kenma was able to finally control himself enough to halt his journey down the stairs and take a legitimate breather even if it was in the middle of the hallway, which was much needed as he lowered himself down to the floor into a squat. The reverberating of his heartbeat slowly but surely quieted down, giving his ears a chance to hear his surroundings clearly at last. Kenma’s chest ached a little from the uncharacteristic run that his body hadn’t been prepared for (sitting crossed legged in front of a computer all day prior hadn’t exactly helped his cause), but to his relief his breath was slowly evening out as he inhaled and exhaled in huffs. The feeling of suffocation resonated in his throat for a minute or two so he nervously dared to cup his hands gently around his neck. The feeling didn’t completely disappear, his throat left feeling dry and raspy. For a moment he considered fully sitting down on the floor and waiting a while before reattempting his trip back to the apartment. Kenma glimpsed warily back over his shoulder and the coast seemed clear for all of a good minute before the loud thumping noise of someone running down the stairs rose in volume.

Kenma’s fear spiked once more and he turned around, instinctively wrapping his arms around his legs as if he meant to form a ball.

“Kenma!”

Without even thinking Kenma out of impulse uncurled himself and turned his body around to see Hinata who was bent over atop of the last step of the previous floor’s staircase, hunched forward and trying desperately to catch his breath as a smile faintly curled over his lips. Kenma sighed in relief that it was only Hinata and sluggishly crawled back up to his feet. Hinata’s smile seemed to blossom at the sight of Kenma making his way over, and while Kenma didn’t bother smiling as prominently he was perhaps just as pleased to see Hinata too.

“I was worried you were going to have a really nasty anxiety attack, and then you were just so _fast_ , I…I…” Hinata babbled on quickly, straightening up his posture and eyeing Kenma with the beginning of a frown,”-…I was worried. Are you going to be okay? How are you feeling?”

Kenma shrugged slowly, not particularly keen on thinking too hard about the situation and spurring unnecessary anxiety or the like. He hadn’t actually been harmed, suffocated, nor died so it wasn’t like he was doing awful per se. Not that he was probably doing spectacular either, lightly rubbing his neck as he could still feel his throat trying to return to normal.

“I’m alive.”

Hinata pouted and dramatically flopped forward into a bow. Kenma had seen him do it enough to know that he was far from upset with Kenma, so Kenma shrugged once more in response.

“Well, I’m glad to see you’re _alive_ -“Hinata said with a dip in tone, trying to ease the mood with a teasing voice”-but I do feel really bad. Are you sure you’re going to be okay? I mean Kageyama was just being…well, Kageyama.”

Kenma cringed for half a second as he remembered the distinct look Kageyama had given him. He hadn’t entirely been scowling or glaring at him, though his face had certainly been scrunched up into something unkind. Kenma imagined at that point maybe he was a _little_ biased because neither Hinata nor he were sure if that was just his permanently assigned face, but that did nothing to stop Kenma from feeling uncomfortable by it. In general just Kageyama’s presence was enough to leave Kenma shaken, his undeniable intensity always oozing from him. A few times he had been unlucky enough to meet his gaze and it was enough to leave Kenma paralyzed with fear-

Though this time, he had managed to maneuver himself away before his body could completely shut down in terror. As he recalled he had seen Hinata in a semi-tangled up mess with Kageyama before he fled. Although Kenma had been at a partial standoff from afar with Kageyama, Hinata had actually been in contact with him. Kenma hummed unhappily thinking about what he might’ve attempted to do to Hinata.

“What about you?” Kenma asked quietly out of curiosity.

“Me?”

“Wasn’t he antagonizing you?”

Hinata stood upright and tilted his head, not understanding the question. Once it clicked however Hinata repeatedly opened his mouth to answer but many of the tries ended up in mere silence, so Hinata instead quietly stood before him and scratched his neck nervously.

“About that.”

Hinata looked down at the ground instead of at Kenma, who lowered his gaze at Hinata and cautiously prepared to take a step backwards.

“He…actually hurt himself. And I was just walking back to our apartment and then, he kinda…hurt himself _more_ and it seemed really wrong to just leave him there in pain-“

“Hinata, what did you do?” Kenma mumbled, having a bad feeling that Hinata did something outlandish again even if it was full of good intention. Hinata was a very sweet person by nature and admittedly his kindness was taken advantage of fairly often from what Kenma had been told, so it came of no surprise that Hinata would assist someone in pain without a second thought.

“I…I gave him some of our muscle rub, which may have been a kinda weird experience.”

Kenma’s mouth formed a small ‘o’ shape as he nodded patiently. In the back of his mind that was definitely a weird thing to do, but he wasn’t surprised that Hinata had gotten himself involved. He started to open his mouth to change the subject but then Hinata cut in.

“A-and…I _might’ve_ also had him inside the apartment for a little while. He didn’t touch anything but the couch though, I promise!” Hinata blurted out, his hands gesturing through the air wildly as he tried to explain himself.

 

Kenma’s stomach twisted into a knot.

Helping Kageyama wasn’t entirely his business, and Hinata could carry on doing so if he wished. However, helping Kageyama in _their apartment_ of all places was a completely different story. Hinata had more than likely meant well but to bring Kageyama into the one environment that was the safe zone for Kenma felt unexpected. Kageyama had an apartment of his own, why had they not done so over there instead? The thought of Kageyama being in their apartment seemed on the invasive side as the apartment was a shared space between Hinata who he trusted a great deal, and himself. In the back of his mind, Kenma was fully aware that Hinata would die before letting a guest into Kenma’s room without permission and so he knew that his personal belongings were safe. While the safety of his valuables was important, his utmost concern was on the mere concept of Kageyama of all people coming in and impeding upon their apartment space. He did not belong in their apartment at all, it didn’t sit well with Kenma no matter how he looked at it.

“I need some air.” Kenma stated flatly.

Hinata froze mid-gesture and slumped his shoulders in a deflated way.

“Air? Like…you want to take a walk?” Hinata asked quietly.

Kenma hummed unhappily one more time and jutted his hands into the pockets of his jacket, nodding sluggishly.

“I do. Alone,” Kenma mumbled.

“You sure?”

Hinata frowned and clasped his hands together tightly. He tried to force a smile but he couldn’t override the clear frown upon his face.

“I’m sure. I’ll be back in a bit.” Kenma added in as he curtly bowed his head and quickly turned himself around to make his exit.

 

And just like that, Kenma found himself back outside of the apartment complex and wandering about. He had intended to give himself some proper space to allow for the chance to clear his mind, soothe his stomach. Rationally speaking he knew he couldn’t forever be offended by the notion of guests coming into their apartment, especially considering that it wasn’t like Hinata and he technically _owned_ the actual space itself. As Kenma internally tried to reason with himself he also had to juggle the task of ignoring his rumbling stomach underneath layers of clothing, which wasn’t exactly working out well as his hunger made him feel a bit more bitter. At a certain point however he eventually caved with an annoyed groan and whirled himself down and around the corner to the café, caring not enough about what he ate so long as the gurgling noises his stomach made could be pacified. As he passed by the front window and looked in, much to his despair it was closed. Or at least, it seemed to be from the way the lights were turned off and there was no one inside as far as he could see (though without lighting there wasn’t much to see).  He huffed and gripped onto the strap of his messenger bag with one hand and then began to rifle through it with the other, aiming for his phone to see if Hinata was still awake and waiting for his return. As he managed to dig it out from underneath his hoard of electronic devices he heard a click a few feet away from him and nearly jumped out of his skin. Panic immediately swept over him and he pulled his limbs in close to his body, locking up in fear out of reflex. He squeezed his eyes closed for a good minute, hoping that nothing would actually happen to him as he wasn’t even sure to begin with what the click had been. The only thing that could’ve, and did in fact, make the situation worse was hearing footsteps headed his way.

“Are you alright?”

A ripple of goosebumps made a sharp beeline down his spine and then back up as he heard someone presumably addressing _him_. The voice seemed oddly familiar and so he dared for a split second to peek over his shoulder-

It was the waiter from before with the bedhead hair and he had a cluster of keys in one hand. Kenma assumed it was safe to guess he had only been locking the door, meaning that the café was officially closed for the night no doubt about it. He nodded slowly and tried relaxing his limbs a little more along with the deadly grip upon his phone that he hadn’t realized he had until that moment, fully pivoting his body around sluggishly to the waiter. While it wasn’t easy to see in the dark, Kenma almost spotted a flash of a grin for a moment.

“Kenma?” He asked in a quiet voice with a tone like he almost unsure whether he recognized Kenma or not.

Kenma on the other hand loosely remembered the waiter, recalling how he had previously kept Kenma company while he waited for Hinata and taken his order all without Kenma feeling too notably overwhelmed in the process. In his mind he was drawing blanks, trying to repeatedly remember any number of cues or hints about his name but to no avail. There had been the game with the paper triangle and him showing Kenma his small (and rather goofy) magic trick but during neither of them did he introduce himself to Kenma. He distinctly remembered they had gotten into a passionate discussion about cats-

And then it hit him immediately, the name rolling off of his tongue.

“Kuroo.”

The waiter visibly perked up and flashed Kenma another grin, but then looked down at his own shoes as he scuffed idly in place.

“You remembered.” He cooed quietly while slowly slipping his keys into the pocket of his jacket.

For a moment he almost swore he saw an excited expression on his face but Kenma wasn’t entirely sure why. He simply tucked a few strands of hair behind his ear and nodded, turning his gaze back to the window of the café. Although his stomach ached from lack of substance, he imagined that it was probably for the better that he hadn’t actually filled himself up with sweets. Hinata would have a calf if he found out Kenma had spoiled his appetite in sweets.

“I apologize if you had gone out of your way to eat here. Things came up and we had to close early,” Kuroo said as he turned his body and gazed into the front café window beside Kenma without much regard for the space between them until Kenma peeked over at him, to which he let out a small oh and distanced himself a few inches away to the right.

Kenma looked back down at his phone and groaned a little in defeat, rubbing his rumbling stomach with his free hand. From his peripheral he could see Kuroo peeking over at him with an odd expression. Kenma slumped somewhat in posture and then began to whirl himself around and leave, only to have made it about a few feet away before he could hear Kuroo calling his name. Out of frustration due to hunger, admittedly for a split second he wished he had not told Kuroo his name. He huffed and whipped his head back around to see Kuroo trying to flag him down with a wave of some sort.

“Are you starving? I was going to go eat at the pub down the street if you’d like to come along.”

Kenma perked up maybe a little bit more than he should’ve at the mention of food and squinted at Kuroo warily.

“Why?” Kenma asked in turn in a low voice, conflicted between the ideas of food and coming along with Kuroo who he clearly didn’t know well.

Kuroo dramatically shrugged and started to back up slowly without looking behind himself.

“I’m hungry and I _did_ close the café early, so it’s on me if you’re interested. If not, then…have a safe trip home!” Kuroo said while still walking away, but added in an end wave.

Kenma mused over the idea of free food. If his stomach had been any less demanding he probably would’ve been easily swayed by anxiety and reason to run on back to the apartment, but it wasn’t.

 

Much to his surprise (and relief to say the least), following Kuroo hadn’t been a trap. As he followed up on his word Kuroo had walked perhaps a few buildings down to a pub and didn’t look back once to see if Kenma had been trailing after him, though he quickly noticed him as Kenma slinked in after Kuroo opened the door for himself. Kenma had heard him laugh a little but disregarded it as Kuroo made up for it in inviting Kenma to join him over at the bar, which certainly earned Kenma a number of unwanted stares. He assumed it was due to his appearance causing confusion about his age, which was bothersome and the stares lacked any subtly. Kenma tried positioning him on a different side of Kuroo to utilize him as a human shield from the attention which didn’t seem to bother Kuroo in the least. Kenma couldn’t tell whether it was a happy accident or Kuroo had noticed as he leaned himself forward against the bar, further blocking out attention from the other side of the room but said nothing to Kenma as he did so, instead beginning to chat up a storm with an employee. Kenma pulled out his phone once more and texted Hinata a short message promising to be home soon, not entirely sure how true the statement was until Kuroo flagged down a different employee and began ordering for himself and then shot Kenma a small nod in his direction.

“What are you in the mood for? Sandwich, sub…?”

“Anything.” Kenma blurted out, which earned him a small smile from Kuroo as he placed the responsibility of ordering onto Kuroo.

After the employee darted off presumably back to the kitchen, Kuroo straightened up his posture and stretched out with a yawn. Kenma tried avoiding watching him but the contagiousness of his yawn spread and Kenma had to try biting back a yawn. From the corner of his eye he could see Kuroo smirking a little so he sent him a small glare in his direction. The seriousness behind his glare dissolved quickly however once an employee returned with some sort of burger for Kenma and some sort of unfamiliar looking sub for Kuroo. Kenma wasted little time devouring it (which earned him a funny look from Kuroo) and finally soothing his stomach. Immediately a state of drowsiness began to kick in once the food had started to settle and he was unable to bite back or restrain at all the next round of yawns.

Kuroo watched him briefly and then reached into his own jacket pocket, pulling out a thin stack of five dollar bills and offering it to Kenma cautiously. Although putting food in his stomach had dramatically mellowed him out, Kenma wasn’t feeling awake enough to entirely process why he was being offered money. It seemed like a nice gesture albeit sketchy, so Kenma gave him the best serious look he could muster up.

“You look like you could pass out right there. Do you need any fare for a taxi?” Kuroo asked him quietly, waving the money at him slowly.

Kenma pursed his lips together and shook his head, checking his phone once more after he managed to safely slide off of his seat at the bar. Hinata hadn’t replied so he assumed that he had more than likely fallen asleep, to which Kenma was glad he always kept his own key to the apartment in case of situations such as that. Kenma adjusted the strap on his messenger bag sluggishly one last time and began to take his leave after a small wave to Kuroo.

“Have a safe trip home!” Kuroo called out to him with a wide grin.

“I will, I will.” Kenma called back with his attempt at a serious look once more.

And for a moment Kuroo’s face lit up dramatically, his grin curling instead into a small smile as he shook his head and turned himself back to the bar. Kenma shook his head in disbelief as he pushed open the door and escorted himself out. Without a doubt, Kuroo was hands down the most eccentric waiter Kenma had yet to encounter but...

Not that it was an entirely bad thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kageyama is actually one of the most harmless things out there. ~~He's just the intense kid at gym who takes it too seriously.~~  
>  Kenma can be a punk when he's hungry, please excuse him.  
> (/ω＼)


End file.
